Special visit to the Bradford self-harm clinic with Radio One

I arrive at Bradford station eager and ready to have a proper look at the facilities of a newly opened clinic in Eccleshill Community Hospital which only deals with injuries inflicted through self-harm. I am here to take part in an interview with Radio One and to meet clinical psychologist Dr. Gillian Proctor, who set the scheme up, and Steph Lawrence, a lead nurse.
The scheme was set up in early October and operates as an outreach service. People who need medical attention can call a special phone line, which is open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and can be treated within 6 hours in their nearest GP clinic. At the moment, it is only available to those aged over 16.

The scheme has taken 2 years to set up and Gillian and Steph both seem completely committed to providing fair, non-discriminatory treatment to people who self-injure, combined with a compassionate and sympathetic acceptence of the existence of self-injury. All the staff involved have been specially trained on self-injury through a training package developed by Gillian and an ex-service user. The scheme aims to treat the physical damage of self-harm without putting the individual through the stigma, discrimination and largely patronising experience that many people go through when seeking treatment from A&E or GP surgeries. They also give service users information on further help and support, LifeSIGNS being one source after I bombarded them with leaflets and publications!

As I stated to the Radio One reporter, the biggest benefit of such a scheme is that it is working to remove an unnecessary barrier that many people who self-injure face – that of stereotyping and discrimination from some untrained healthcare professionals. At least for individuals in Bradford, they are able to access medical attention without being made to feel unworthy of care or treatment.

Gillian and Steph tell us how they’ve only had a handful of patients so far, but interestingly a couple of these have been males. The scheme is currently on a six month trial but following a successful evaluation, will hopefully expand to the wider parts of Bradford and to include provisions for those under 16. As Gillian only deals with adult healthcare , she states how the scheme was set up purely on a pragmatic basis, it being easier to have the trial focussing on adults only.

As usual, the main question that Radio One asked was on ‘safe self-injury’ and whether this would promote self-injury. A sigh came from the three of us who were being interviewed ! No, was the answer! Hopefully the main message that came across in the interview was that self-injury is a coping mechanism and more importantly, actually exists!

The atmosphere from the clinic was warm and understanding. Gillian seems fully aware of the issues that surround self-harm through her experience with past patients who self-injured and indeed, were her inspiration to the set the scheme up, and is doing her best to counter these.

It was brilliant to be involved in another piece of national media attention on SI which is slowly recognising that SI does exist and more needs to be done about it!

Catch the interview by Helen Neill on Tuesday 31st October on the 12.45 lunchtime Newsbeat on BBC Radio 1.

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