The National Inquiry Conference 6th July 2006

I went to the conference today and let me first stress that I was mightily impressed with the day and the work that the panel has done over the past two years. There was such a wide array of people there today, doctors, nurses, headteachers, social workers, voluntary workers, as well as highly interesting speakers. We heard from speakers at the top of their fields, who have great experience with self harm and it was easy to come away with a feeling of optimism for what can be achieved in the future.

The two main issues that kept coming up throughout the day were that (a) there needs to be a dramatic shift in attitude in healthcare workers coming into contact with people who self harm and that (b) those coming into contact with self harm need support themselves.

The whole day has fuelled a whole load of ideas for where LifeSIGNS can play a role in all of this, and highlighted our role in education and training as a vitally important one to transforming attitudes through the relaying of personal experiences. I have so many ideas now that I need to step back and acknowledge that there is no way we can tackle of them!

I will write up a full report of the day as I think many of our members will find it interesting that will hopefully be available soon. Let me just say that one of my highlights of the day was Dr Mark Hamilton (of Sunday Surgery on Radio One, as well as an A&E physician). He felt that an effective way to use his speech time was to play a song that a few people had told him encapsulated the way they felt before they self-harmed. At full blast in the conference hall, it was very effective – the song was Papa Roach Last Resort. While not everyone who self-harms will like this song, it works very well as putting someone who doesn’t understand self-harm in a position where you cannot escape relentless anger and despair, where the only solution can be seen to be self-harm. It actually made me shed a few tears, and it took me right back.