Working with Self-harm – a One Day Workshop (Swansea)

Date:- Thursday 25th June 2009


Venue:- Maritime Museum, Oystermouth Road,
Swansea, SA1 3RD

This one-day workshop explores self-harm and is suitable for workers whose clients may be exhibiting self-harming behaviours. Participants will explore this complex subject that is often mistakenly seen as attempted suicide.

This workshop starts from the basic principles of understanding the issues leading to and surrounding destructive and harmful behaviours, the function of the behaviour(s) and appropriate responses. Self-harm is a relevant issue for all of those working with children and young people and is of grave concern.

The aims of this workshop are: To increase awareness and understanding of the reasons why young people may use destructive and harmful behaviours. To develop competence and identify relevant skills to enable professionals to respond confidently when presented with and in identifying self-harming behaviours.

To book contact:

Glyn Jones,
Network Manager,
Mid and West Wales CAMHS Commissioning Network

glyn.jones@wales.nhs.uk

Music, Self Harm & Slipknot

Corey Taylor defends the band's lyrics...

• by Daniel Melia
• Thursday, May 21, 2009
• Photo by: wenn.com / Carsten Windhorst

Vibrant Slipknot frontman Corey Taylor has hit out suggestions the band's music encourages children to self harm.

The band previously come under fire over the dark imagery in some of their song lyrics, but Taylor insists the tracks do not influence impressionable youngsters.

And he understands why angst-ridden teenagers feel depressed - he suffered the same problems in his youth.

Taylor says, "If you're setting out to hurt yourself, it's not the music that's causing it. There's something else wrong. We get a lot of kids that cut themselves but I go out of my way to try and stop it.

"It may feel artistic to carve our names in your arm but to us, it's just hurting yourself. As bleak as Slipknot can be, it's supposed to be positive in the long term and the last thing we want is for anyone to hurt themselves.

"I used to be one of those kids and I always try to explain to them that I know what it's like to feel like you're the last person on Earth. All you have to do is reach out and someone will be there."

Slipknot live in London

Slipknot fans @ Hammersmith Apollo

“I can actually talk to them now” – Educational intervention for nurses

Posted on June 1, 2009 by sjennings29

‘I can actually talk to them now’: qualitative results of an educational intervention for emergency nurses caring for clients who self-injure, Journal of Clinical Nursing, online early view, 2009

Margaret McAllister, Wendy Moyle, Stephen Billett and Melanie Zimmer-Gembeck

Authors: Margaret McAllister, RN, Ed D, Associate Professor, University of the Sunshine Coast, Maroochydore, Australia; Wendy Moyle, RN, PhD, Professor, Griffith University, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia; Stephen Billett, PhD, Professor, Griffith University, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia; Melanie Zimmer-Gembeck, PhD, Associate Professor, Griffith University, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia

Correspondence to Dr Margaret McAllister, School of Health and Sport Sciences, University of the Sunshine Coast, Maroochydore,

ABSTRACT

Aim and objectives. This Australian study evaluated the effectiveness of a solution-focused education intervention in extending and improving emergency nursing responses to patients who present because of self-injury.

Background. Emergency nurses commonly report lack of training and feeling unskilled in managing people who present because of self-harm. Most educational interventions have provided content knowledge, yet rarely have they focused on conveying the value of health promotion strategies such as proactive skills and coping strategies.

Design. A mixed method pretest–posttest group design was used.

Methods. Nurses (n = 36) were interviewed to examine differences in professional identity, awareness of self-injury and clinical reasoning.

Results. The qualitative results are presented in this paper and these showed improvements in knowledge and understanding of self-harm, self-belief in nurses’ capacity to positively influence clients and the value of health promotion skills. The intervention produced a positive attitudinal shift towards clients and an expressed intention to act in ways that were more person-centred and change oriented.

Conclusions. The solution-focused education intervention appears to show promise as an intervention for enabling nurses to value their unique contribution to providing a health service that is more proactive and health-promoting.

Relevance to clinical practice. Interactive education bringing psychosocial skills to technical nursing staff builds confidence, competence and more person-focused care.

Lancashire Care staff can request the full-text of this paper, email: susan.jennings@lancashirecare.nhs.uk

Harmless (DVD Trailer)

'Out of harm's way' is a DVD featuring seven short documentaries exploring the meaning of self harm and the factors which lead to recovery.

The full DVD is available to purchase from http://www.harmless.org.uk, and all proceeds from its sale will be used to provide services to people who self harm.