LifeSIGNS

They say that though the days are long, the years are short, and 2008 has certainly passed in a whirlwind. Wedge and I have worked incredibly hard this year, and it only feels like yesterday we were working 12 hours a day preparing for SIAD. Now it’s time to start thinking about SIAD 2009! I’ve [...]

As well as our Social Networking groups on Facebook, Bebo and MySpace, FirstSigns is also on Twitter. Those of you already following us will know that all FirstSigns news and information is announced on Twitter first. It’s a simple and efficient way for us to interract with our members. If you don’t have a Twitter [...]

Whether you celebrate Christmas, Yule, Hanukkah, or none of the above, the holiday season affects everyone. It can be a time of joy – maybe a break from work, an opportunity to see loved ones and a time to let go and have fun. But for many people, the stresses and pressures involved with the [...]

Wedge has a copy of Jan Sutton’s ‘Healing the Hurt Within – 2nd Edition’ that he’s wanting to give to one of our members. We’ve decided the fairest way to choose who gets the book is by holding a draw. So, if anyone would like a chance of winning, please email Jules@firstsigns.org.uk . There’s no [...]

(and how judgemental am I?) Earlier this month BBC2 aired a two-part Horizon special about mental illness called ‘How mad are you’. For those who didn’t see it, it focused on a group of 10 people, 5 of whom had a diagnosed mental illness and 5 who had never had any mental health problem. The [...]

Harmless, a relatively new self harm organisation based in Nottingham, have sent us a link to the trailer they have produced for their DVD, and asked if we might share it with our members. The video lasts just under nine minutes and includes short discussions with four people who self harm (including older /male people), [...]

Wedge is always encouraging me to write more personal blogs, and as you know we like to be inspiring and empowering here at FirstSigns, so I thought a little positive inspiration would be good. One of my friends stuck a little note on my computer this morning saying: “Thank you for loving me when I [...]

Jules and I went on our travels on Sunday, down to Wells, near Glastonbury. Come Monday morning, we were in the thick of the day’s Self-Harm Conference, called ‘The Injured Self’. We were fortunate to be invited when Alison Leyland (of Living Change) heard me speak at the CPC Conference (London) in May. Alison organised [...]

Jules and I are off on our travels (as usual!) to attend and speak at a conference on self-harm this coming Monday. Alison (from Living Change) has done a grand job organising everything (including us!) and we’re thrilled that, after seeing us at the last conference I spoke at, she’s invited us to be part [...]

First of all, we hope you’re all settling back into work, school, college and life after the summer. As predicted, the message board is becoming much busier now the holidays are over and it’s important we keep it fresh and up-to-date. We’ll therefore be deleting all unused accounts at the end of the month, so [...]

A journalist working for an international press agency has requested a young, female volunteer to speak about her experiences of self-injury. The journalist would ideally would like to find a female participant. She would like to speak to a young person *and* her family about the support they have received to tackle self-injury. Alternatively she [...]

On Monday, Wedge and I attended a school in Exeter after being invited to speak on the subject of self-injury. The school in question had recognised a need for more awareness on the subject for their staff and we were warmly welcomed by the school nurse who had organised the event, and all the teaching [...]

As you know, some time ago we changed our name from ‘LifeSIGNS’ to FirstSigns and changed our web address to match. Obviously this has an impact on how people find us, link to us and how many people visit our site. Google has to re-find our FirstSigns website and re-index us and decide where to [...]

On Wednesday I travelled to the Peterborough area to meet with people at Mind who run a drop-in and support centre. It was great to hear their thoughts and experiences around the subject of self-injury, and I hope our training package was of some help to them in their work. FirstSigns travels all over the [...]

Jules and I spent a night in Glasgow at the weekend to meet Trevor, a professional social entrepreneur and expert fund raiser. FirstSigns must grow – we’ve been bigger in the past and we’d get more work done and have a greater impact if we had more people involved and more money to support the [...]