Opportunity to collaborate in research
The lived experience group is a very important part of the FReSH START research team. We believe in the saying, “nothing about us, without us”. This means a project about self-harm needs input from people who know what this can be like. We are in the process of recruiting people with lived experience of self-harm to join our FReSH START Lived Experience Group, so that we can hear from a diverse set of voices.
Self-harm can be different for everyone. When we say this, we mean acts like cutting or burning your skin, hitting or injuring yourself in some way. We also include eating/drinking something that might be poisonous, like an overdose of tablets. People who self-harm deserve understanding from others, and we want to be able to make support services better through our research.
We are running two online workshops on 19th November 2024 and 21st January 2025, where we would like to introduce the initial themes from the interviews we have conducted with therapists and patients. Anyone who shares their views with us will be reimbursed for their time. You don’t need any previous experience of research to take part.
This group also meets every 6 months, although we do not expect you to attend every meeting if you are unable to. Our researchers will attend every meeting and will start by telling you about the progress of the project and what we hope to do. You will have the chance to give your opinion on how the research is progressing and help us to plan the next steps.
If you would like to find out more and to express interest in being part of the lived experience group, you can contact Tom or Charlotte on freshstart@leeds.ac.uk or 07355925438.
You can also download our flyer and information leaflet contain some more information here: FReSH START LEG Flyer and FReSH START LEG Further Information Leaflet