Hi everyone.
I am a researcher at The University of Huddersfield and I am looking to develop an intervention based in primary care (GP services/community services) to support people who self-harm, combining self-compassion and wound management, and staff education.
We are in the really early stages of developing this idea at the moment and would love to get some feedback from people as to what they think of the idea and if they feel it might be useful.
I am in the process of obtaining University ethical approvals for undertaking these activities.
Background:
Our research team has found evidence to suggest that people do not always receive good support and care from healthcare services, often due to a lack of education/training of staff, which can sometimes mean that people do not always seek help for self-harm injuries when they need to.
Our idea:
Our proposed intervention would involve developing a resource (either leaflet/digital app) that would give people advice/education on how to be more compassionate to themselves.
Self-compassion means treating yourself with kindness, understanding, and acceptance, especially when you are struggling or feeling inadequate.
This would be supported by a 'rescue pack' which would involve wound care materials (such as wound dressings, wound cleaning materials) to enable people to self-manage their wounds at home.
There would also be a staff education element, which would aim to educate healthcare professionals (such as community nurses/GP staff) about how to be more compassionate towards people who self-harm.
We think people could access these resources from their local GP surgery/pharmacy, which would enable people to manage their own wounds at home and seek help when they need to.
Your views:
We would love to hear what you think about this proposed intervention and would really appreciate any feedback you can offer on if you think this would be valuable. We would particularly like to find out about:
Has there been a time when you felt supported or understood during treatment? What helped?
Have you ever had a negative or distressing experience with wound care? What could have made it better?
If there were a resource (e.g., booklet, video, website) to help people care for self-harm wounds compassionately, what should it include? What format would you prefer for such a resource?
Would you use a resource like this? Why or why not?
If you would like to offer any feedback on our idea, I would love to hear from you. Please either send me a direct message, reply to this message or email me directly at
[email protected].
Any information you provide will be kept completely confidential.
Many thanks in advance.
Joanna
