Free Theatre Tickets

We have tickets to give away to a new play, that focuses in a young girl who self-harms.

The Solas Theatre Company is performing at The Pleasance Theatre in Islington, and we've got tickets for you and a friend / loved one for opening night on Tuesday 10th of June (7:45pm) - all you have to do is agree to review the play (just a few paragraphs) for us - email info@lifesigns.org.uk with the subject of 'PLAY' and we'll email you back with details.

"A Short Swim in the Air"

Ideally, you might already know The Pleasance and be confident travelling around Islington and London yeah? As we've got two tickets for you, we hope you'll take a friend or loved one, and that you'll travel together and keep each other safe and secure. No doubt the play deals with the harsh realities of life, and of course it may well be triggering in parts.

Small Print

LifeSIGNS cannot be held responsible for your night out in Islington, we offer these free tickets in good faith, on an understanding with the Production management.

BBC Sunday Life Request

The BBC is creating a 'magazine tv series' called Sunday Life, due to start next month. Although the show will have faith and ethics at its heart, it will be topical and, most importantly, driven by compelling human stories.

On Sunday 20^th April they will be focusing on suicide and Anna would like to hear from people (16 - 25 years of age) who have overcome thoughts of suicide.

At LifeSIGNS we understand that suicide and self-injury are two totally separate subjects, and in many respects are opposites. Self-injury is, after all, a coping mechanism that many people describe as something that keeps them alive and prevents suicide. Self-injury is a non-suicidal behaviour.

However, we also recognise that the emotional distress that leads to self-injury can also lead to suicidal thoughts and actions.

If you have overcome thoughts of suicide and would like to appear on television to talk about your own experiences, then please email Wedge@lifesigns.org.uk with the following information:

First name:

Age:

50 words about your suicidal thoughts - do not write more than 50 words, they will not get read!

The show is near Bradford and the BBC will refund your travel and hotel expenses afterwards.

Please consider that appearing on television, and discussing suicide and emotional matters may have a huge impact, not only on yourself, but on your family and friends. We suggest that you talk about this idea with your family and friends before making any decisions, and that you ensure that you are in a 'safe and sensible' frame of mind - we wouldn't want to think that appearing on tv could harm or trigger you.

Thank you,

Wedge and Jules

Anger

Anger is a valid emotion, and something we can use to help us direct our energies - but it's also the cause of a great deal of stress and it can sometimes seem to control us.

The Mental Health Foundation have launched a little website to tackle anger management, and you may well enjoy going through their quizzes and videos: www.yourboilingpoint.org.uk

The April edition of our Newsletter, LifeSHINES, will also discuss anger, so I hope you've signed up to receive our beautiful, popular and free e-newsletter?

At LifeSIGNS, we believe that self-expression (and even 'venting') are incredibly important, and we help people express themselves just a little by providing our Message Board, and publishing people's art work and videos, as well as their letters.

So get creative and don't let anger be the defining characteristic of your life!

Get "The Secret Cut" DVD

The makers of 'The Secret Cut' have been kind enough to send LifeSIGNS a copy of their DVD; we would like to offer it to a member so that you can review it for us, and let British people know your thoughts on this American production.

If you live in the UK and would like to review 'The Secret Cut' DVD for LifeSIGNS, please email Wedge@lifesigns.org.uk with a little background about yourself, such as your first-name and how long you've been a member of LifeSIGNS (or a reader of our PDF Newsletter). Your review will be published in time around the web perhaps, but only your first-name / nickname will ever be shown.

You can view clips and read their website, however, you need to be aware that their web design is triggering, and that the DVD focuses greatly on the behaviour of self-injury.

I feel this video is aimed at shocking parents and teachers into taking self-injury seriously; the heavy focus on the way people hurt themselves and how teens hide their self-injury is a little sensationalistic I feel for people who know about self-injury. The website and the video rely heavily on bloody imagery, and real photographs of wounds, tools and scars.

A third of the way through, the video makes a great distinction between self-injury and suicide.

I feel the video gets better as it goes on, but that the initial 15 minutes or so are sensationalistic and produced in a manner aimed to shock. I feel that self-injury is a shocking and important enough subject without going overboard on triggering images. This video is about teen self-injury - it does not touch on adult self-injury and even says that 'most teens' do not go on to self-injure as adults.

At LifeSIGNS, we know that when the media talk about teenagers, there are young adults and older adults who feel neglected and without hope. We know that self-injury can affect people of all ages, and from all backgrounds.

As well as book reviews, we're interested in seeing videos made by our members - you can check out our two new web videos online now.

There's only one thing worse than being talked about...

In the last few weeks we've certainly given people loads to talk about, and you've been kind enough to share your thoughts with us by email, Facebook and our Message Board, and yes, we notice that not everyone is happy with what's been going on, but what we also notice over everything is the huge impact LifeSIGNS is having, and how we're able to help people raise awareness about self-injury.

First, we had a great Self-Injury Awareness Day, and our popular and beautiful Factsheets we're zipping all over the world! So many of you have sent them to friends, or printed them out for your teachers, it's been great.

Not to mention we seem to have sold most of our Wristbands and Keyrings during the month of February! Amazing!

Then we've had the 'Tell Someone' Project, which has certainly got people talking, and even 'coming out' about their SI - it can't just be about the free stickers we're offering we know, but it's great that so many of you have shared your 'coming out' stories with us, and we'll be sure to pop them in the April edition of LifeSHINES, our Newsletter.

The Newsletter went down a treat too, and people seem to like the new name, I mean, it goes with our new Logo and everything, so that's great.

People are also talking about our new service / feature, as we're thrilled to have Dr. Neil on board to offer thoughts and guidance to our members within the pages of our free Newsletter. The 'Ask Dr. Neil' feature is going to be a fantastic addition to LifeSHINES, and won't be an 'Agony Uncle' thing, rather, your letters will be answered by a qualified doctor and psychiatrist.

Still, that's not the main thing people have been talking about - actually, the thing that's got people's tongues wagging has also been something that's kept people 'quiet' as well if you see what I mean... Yes, LifeSIGNS has dared to talk about something that some people would rather brush away and pretend doesn't exist - no, not self-injury this time, but masturbation. Yeah, not an easy subject to talk about, but something that, in relation to seeking release and relief from tension, we need to talk about. So yeah, while some people's tongues are wagging and heads are shaking, we're moving forward and looking at lots of ways to distract yourself from self-injury.

Like I said, not everyone has been best pleased with LifeSIGNS over the last few weeks, but we're happy to listen to all our members, and we are often in deep conversation with people about how to improve our services - we learn from you guys, we learn from listening. Of course, it's hard to hear anything useful when some people choose to shout and scream and hurl abuse - and yes, we've heard of the gossip that goes on within some cliques and groups, but, y'know, hatred always returns to it's source, and well, gossip and name calling doesn't really throw us off our game does it? Not when we've got so many dedicated volunteers and supporters who help LifeSIGNS be everything it is!

So, thanks to everyone for talking about LifeSIGNS, thanks for passing on our address, or for recommending our Facebook and Bebo Groups, or for distributing our Factsheets - thanks even for gossiping about us!

There's only one thing worse than being talked about, and that's not being talked about.

Volunteering Magazine

Volunteering England has featured LifeSIGNS within its Volunteering Magazine!

Here's how the interview went.

Q Please could you tell us how LifeSIGNS started?

A I 'Came Out' about my self-injury and started seeking help when I was at University; I started writing my personal thoughts on my own website and then I realised I had to do more than just rant about my own personal distress.

I launched LifeSIGNS in May 2002 with some great friends, and since then we've grown and grown, and I've met and worked with some incredible people.

Q What kind of services do you offer?

A We believe that people have come to realise they can be open on the Internet, and so we're a 'virtual' organisation.

We provide a wealth of inspiring ideas on our website, and some in-depth articles to help people reflect on their self-injurious behaviour and their emotional state.

We also send out a free e-Newsletter which is beautifully produced and on to its 30th edition now! Being online, we've linked up with Bebo, Facebook, MySpace and all that sort of thing to help LifeSIGNS reach out to people.

We also blog regularly. We have our own vibrant Message Board, which unlike some of those random forums you find online, is stable, safe and well moderated.

When it comes to real-life work, we provide self-injury awareness training around the UK, and we speak at conferences.

We're privileged to have our ideas considered by the NHS, CAMHS and Counsellors, and we're pleased to visit organisations to share our perspectives.

We also offer a range of Factsheets for download, together with our Guidance for Schools Self-Injury policy that is already being circulated around 200 schools across Ireland.

Q How many volunteers do you have and what kind of roles are they involved with?

A LifeSIGNS is completely user-led and volunteer run. I am the founding director of LifeSIGNS and I run it with my colleague, Jules. But of course we also benefit from the hard work and dedication of several volunteers like our Message Board Moderators, and the volunteers who help run our Facebook and MySpace profiles.

Our website and Newsletter articles are often written by myself or Jules, but we also publish people's essays, stories and poetry and are very grateful for contributions from our memberbase.

We will expand our core management team to four or maybe six later in 2008.

Right now, I guess seven of us are involved with the running of LifeSIGNS and our web services, but we've had twice as many as that in the past and I know we'll grow in number over this summer.

On top of this, we also make use of a 'Guidance Group' where our members can submit suggestions and guide the strategy of LifeSIGNS overall.

We are looking to expand the membership and powers of the Guidance Group this year; LifeSIGNS is already user-led, but we want to hear from more people, people who may not want to volunteer per se, but wish to have their voices heard.

While the management team adhere to guidelines and our constitution, we don't demand anything formal from our volunteers. However, many of them have worked with us for years and we wouldn't be surprised if they became part of the management team one day.

Q Where do you recruit your volunteers from?

A We recruit from within our own 'memberbase'. We're not always looking for volunteers with personal experience of self-injury, but we are looking for people who know our work and our values.

We have a popular Newsletter and Message Board, and so when we ask for help or for new volunteers, our members come forward.

We're very well connected to people, not in a faceless corporate manner, but on a personal level. Our members really get involved with our projects and web services, so we often get to know people and they help us long before they become an 'official' volunteer.

Q How do you train, support and supervise your volunteers?

A Depending on the task, a volunteer might need training, or might just need a hand every now and then.

With regard to the training we deliver to the NHS and organisations around the country, we have a real one-on-one development process whereby an experienced trainer teaches the 'training package' to the new volunteer trainer, and they each attend one another's training sessions until they both feel that the new volunteer is ready to represent LifeSIGNS in the field and can cope with the stresses of talking to a room full of healthcare workers!

It can take several sessions over several months. I've personally trained two volunteer trainers, and I will be training my colleague Jules this summer.

Other tasks, such as managing our Message Board or Facebook Group only requires online support and supervision. This might be on a daily basis, day or night, but we can trust our volunteers to be discerning, plus, we consider Facebook and Bebo to be reasonably 'safe' spaces on the web.

Our volunteers know they can email or 'message' us at any time and we'll respond very quickly – they often 'check' with us about things, just to make sure.

Q How do you thank your volunteers?

A All of our volunteers have a personal drive to raise awareness about self-injury and emotional wellbeing, so we're partners in the same game really.

We look after our volunteers by keeping them in the know about LifeSIGNS projects, and asking for their input regarding the organisation's direction.

We might give them little things, like stickers, or we might invite them to write in our Blog – empowering things like that.

We want our volunteers to feel part of LifeSIGNS – after all, while I own the LifeSIGNS organisation, I'm a volunteer too!

Q What are you plans for the future?

A We've just re-vamped our Mission Statement so we've got our eyes on the horizon right now. We're not the same as other faceless organisations – when you get to know LifeSIGNS, you get to know everyone who's involved.

This year we're raising funds so that we can print some leaflets – it's important we have some offline material as well as all our online stuff.

We’ll definitely be increasing the size and scope of the management team. We are swamped by requests and overloaded with information at the moment – there's too much work and not enough 'us' to go round.

We've been 'bigger' in the past, so we know what to expect as we expand again.

There will be a lot of time spent developing organisational procedures and boring things like that, but it's all to support the awareness work that we do throughout the year.

We'll be speaking at more conferences this year, and it's always fantastic to 'network' with people in real life – you never know who you might bump into and who might become a lifelong supporter.

Why Services Are Failing The Adults Who Selfharm (from The Herald )

Just a little blog to note that other orgs are also talking about self-injury in adults.

Why Services Are Failing The Adults Who Selfharm

SIAD: a big hit

In case you're wondering, even though Self-Injury Awareness Day was on a Saturday (weekends are quiet you see) the LifeSIGNS website still manage to pull in six times as many visitors for the day!

Six times as many! I'm just thankful that our little server didn't fall over under the weight of demand!