Self-Injury Awareness Day 2013
SIAD occurs on 1st March every year, and has done so for well over a decade.
SIAD is an international event that is recognised across the globe.
Self-Injury Awareness Day wasn't 'invented' by LifeSIGNS, but we are proud to lead SIAD in the UK by offering a variety of resources to help people raise awareness.
Raising awareness about self-injury is incredibly important. Awareness leads to understanding and empathy, banishing judgment and fear, and reducing the number of people who feel alone and suffer in silence.
Media
Please contact info@lifesigns.org.uk or 07950705258 with all media enquiries.
What you can do
LifeSIGNS can provide the resources and support, but we alone cannot fight stigma and educate the masses - we need your help. If you want people to understand self-injury better, then you need to do something, and we're very happy to help you.
This year, we'd like to ask every single one of you to choose at least one action from the following list, and do it not only for SIAD, but for yourself. If you'd prefer to live in a world where people understand self-injury and don't judge, where you can talk freely about mental health instead of being trapped in silence, then it's all of our responsibility to educate them. We'll provide the resources, and we'd like you to do your bit by using those resources now.
Which of the following will you choose to do?
 Stick up a poster
Print posters and stick them up wherever you can. You may need permission, or you may be able to use a notice board.
 Buy a wristband / key ring
Buying a key ring not only raises awareness about self-injury, but supports directly LifeSIGNS as well by enabling us to continue our work throughout the year.
Everyone wears a wristband or hangs a key ring on their bag for different reasons - there’s always something about memory involved - remembering the past, looking at how far you’ve come, and maybe how many more steps there are to take.
Some people show their key ring openly - as they’re able to say “It’s SIAD, I’m showing my support for friends on the web who shouldn’t be alone in their struggle”.
We’ve been online for over ten years, and we do everything we do based on the funds people donate and the funds raised by selling wristbands around the world.
You really make a difference to us, and you’re helping us make a difference to people who may be totally alone in their distress, who don’t know how to ask for help, and who need just a little extra assurance to get through the day.
 Hand out some fact sheets
Browse our fact sheets and print out any that are relevant in your life; leave some in your GP surgery or around work / school or college.
We have fact sheets for parents, guys, friends, healthcare workers, teachers, employers and for people who hurt themselves. Free to download, free to print, free to share.
 Self-injury policy
Print our policy guidance notes and give them to your school / college pastoral care team, head or nurse.
 Creating a School Self-Injury Policy [PDF; 240KB]
Talk to a teacher and nurse at your school or college and get together group of volunteers; follow our guidance and draft a 'policy' for your head teacher to review and improve.
 Contact your local radio station
Make a quick call or send an email asking for SIAD to be mentioned on 1st March.
Give them our web address of www.lifesigns.org.uk and ask them to contact info@lifesigns.org.uk for more information or an interview.
Mention SIAD on your social networks and link to this page
Talk about SIAD on your Twitter, Tumblr and Facebook; link to LifeSIGNS at www.lifesigns.org.uk/siad/ or our Facebook Page so people can read more about what it's all about.
Some short updates to adapt and use:
With #SIAD on the 1st of March, join @LifeSIGNS virtual Facebook 'event': http://d.pr/cf8b (It's online only, no need to go anywhere!)
Check out the SI awareness resources at http://d.pr/LIMy for #SIAD posters and fact sheets from @LifeSIGNS
Get an SI Awareness wristband before #SIAD from http://d.pr/X4Jg and help support #selfinjury awareness.
Self-Injury Awareness Day is a time to come together and share more information to help smash stigma: http://d.pr/LIMy #SIAD
 Write an article about self-injury
Articles that discuss a person's personal experiences of self-injury (and / or recovery) are always popular, and don't need to be more than a few hundred words.
Send your non-triggering articles to info@lifesigns.org.uk for publication before 1st March on our main blog.
 Virtually 'attend' our SIAD event on Facebook and invite all your friends / followers
By virtually attending our SIAD Facebook event (you don't have to go anywhere, just click that you're attending) you'll be supporting SIAD. By inviting your contacts, you'll be raising awareness too.
 Consider joining the LifeSIGNS team of volunteers to raise awareness about self-injury throughout the year
For LifeSIGNS, SIAD is every day! We're user-led and run solely by volunteers who have personal experience of self-injury.
We have grand ambitions for the years ahead, and we need our team of volunteers to grow. Please consider joining us in helping raise awareness about self-injury and supporting people in distress, throughout the year. Read our recruitment page.
 Visit a real life UK event on 1st March
If you're in the midlands then you can visit a real life event on SIAD itself. We'll be at Walsall Safeguarding Children Board's SIAD event at Walsall College, Wisemore Campus, from 12pm until 2pm.
The WSCB will launch new self-injury related guidelines for staff who support young people, and there will be a video made by Walsall College students and YoungMinds.
You can pick up our fact sheets and posters, buy a wristband and get to meet our founder, Wedge.
What will you do?
If every single one of you does at least one thing from the above list, then this could be our most successful SIAD ever. Please let us know via Twitter, tumblr or Facebook what you have done personally, and if you can send us a pic too then all the better.
Let us all join together this SIAD and really raise some awareness across the UK and beyond. By working together, we can make a real difference and change the world.
Thank you.
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