Update 30th August: Please note that Emma has now had enough volunteers for her documentary; thanks to everyone who bravely put themselves forward.
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Below is a letter from Emma Parsons of the BBC who is looking for someone based in the UK to participate in a fly-on-the-wall documentary on self-injury. We have met with her and a colleague and feel confident that the subject will be sensitively handled.

My name is Emma Parsons and I am a director in News and Current Affairs at the BBC. I am working on a project about young people (14 – 25) who self-injure. The programme is a one hour observational documentary which will be shown as part of a season on BBC 3 in December.

My aim is to explore this sensitive subject from the prospective of the young people themselves. For example, there will be no “experts” talking about self-injury. I also hope that this documentary will help to dispel myths surrounding this subject and help bring a greater understanding to why people self-injure.

I am writing in this letter as I would like to speak to young people in the UK who have first hand experience of self-injury as I am keen to find out as much as I can about this issue. Ultimately I’m trying to find three people who would be happy and comfortable to appear in the documentary. However, anyone who chooses to contact me will be under no obligation to take part.

Being in the documentary would involve having me follow you around with a camera (I film the documentary myself on a small digital camera) for a few weeks to find out about your life. What is filmed is a negotiation between us, we would talk about everything first. Also, I would like to offer you a small camera to film yourself with, like a video diary.

Please remember that your family will be affected by your filming and if you are young you may need parental permission.

I would like to make it clear that I am not interested in seeing any self-injury on film. This programme is about why someone self-injures, not the self-injury itself.

I am happy to meet in person to discuss the project and show you similar recent documentaries made by the Current Affairs for BBC 3.

I do hope that you can help me with this project. I look forward to hearing from you soon.
With best wishes,
Emma Parsons
Producer/ Director
News and Current Affairs

Update 30th August: Please note that Emma has now had enough volunteers for her documentary; thanks to everyone who bravely put themselves forward.