FirstSigns

People often want to set-up real-life ‘support groups’, but are frequently disappointed by attendance and attitudes. Here are some considerations to help you plan a support group to help you.

Wedge pops in to ask how you feel about websites that claim to be ‘official’ but are really just hobby websites that soon get abandoned and neglected. Don’t you want to be able to trust the organisations on the web?

I had planned today on blogging about what it’s like to attend a FirstSigns meet-up, but that will have to wait until tomorrow now as I’m too excited about my first training session! For some time now, Wedge and I have been working on our training package, and he’s been tutoring me on how to [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 were in the Midlands today, as I was invited yet again to return to a teaching hospital and talk to medical students about self-injury. I was a feeling a little off-colour today so I may not have performed at my best, but there were loads of questions after my little seminar, so [...]

I’m supposed to be blogging to tell you that I’ve just been to Liverpool to train some counsellors and nurses, but having seen a little more of Liverpool I have to exclaim about the city and the people! I saw so many grand stone buildings, and so many new buildings being built – the streets [...]

It’s always a pleasure to see Dr. Neil and help out in his classes at the (not so) nearby teaching hospital. Last month I spoke to a class of qualified doctors, today I spoke to a lively class of medical doctors who, I think, were in their psychiatry module of their ongoing education and training. [...]