Self-Injury Awareness Day 2010
Each year, the 1st of March is designated as SIAD around the world. It's a time when we can all come together to help raise awareness about self-injury and self-harm. SIAD has been running for many years, and has become more and more popular in the UK over the last few years, and FirstSigns / LifeSIGNS is proud to lead the UK in self-injury awareness by providing support, information, fact sheets and posters for everyone to use.
On this page you will find:
- Things to do during February;
- Fact sheets to print and distribute;
- Posters to pin up at work / school / college / uni;
- Templates for Letters to send to newspapers and radio shows, MPs, doctors and teachers;
- Our free booklet to download;
- Guidance for a School / College Self-Injury Policy
The slide show above is something you can share with parents and friends; March is "Tell Someone Month".
Things you can do to raise awareness
 Buy Awareness Wristbands from FirstSigns
They're fab, and they don't say 'self-injury' or 'self-harm' on them, so if your friends ask "what's the orange keyring for?" you can just say 'charity' or you can talk about the work FirstSigns does.
Spread the word about this page
www.FirstSigns.org.uk/siad/
- Could you link to this page from your website or blog?
- Could you write a note about this page on Bebo, Facebook, MySpace, audioboo, Twitter, Buzz or your fave Social Networking site?
- Could you email your friends with the link?
- Could you mention this page on your fave Message Board?
Follow our Facebook 'Page' or join our Group
Join in the SIAD discussions on our Message Board
Our Message Board caters to our warm and vibrant community all year round.
Write for our blog
If you're planning an event for SIAD, *doing your bit* to raise awareness in any way, or have something to say about self-injury awareness, then we want to hear from you! We'll be publishing your SIAD stories on our blog (they'll be published by Jules and you're welcome to remain anonymous).
Email Jules@firstsigns.org.uk and don't forget pictures of your event if you have them (sorry, no photographs of people will be published).
Write a letter
 You could use our template letter to write to your MP, your doctor, your school / teacher, your local radio station, your local newspaper, your local TV news, your favourite magazines – the whole media!
Our template letter is also appropriate for email of course.
 Template SIAD Letter [RTF / Word; 9KB]
Feel free to mix our letter up, put your own words into it!
Send out / Stick up our Factsheets
 Along with the letter (or without) send the appropriate Factsheet to:
- your parents or guardians; Parents' Factsheet [PDF; 480KB]
- your school, college or welfare officers at uni; Teachers' Factsheet [PDF; 450KB]
- your RGN or doctor / psychologist; Healthcare Worker Factsheet [PDF; 600KB]
- your friends; Friends' Factsheet [PDF; 450KB]
- the local media;
- your male friends who self-injure; Males' Factsheet [PDF; 450KB]
 Stick up our Posters
Print our posters on A4 paper (or larger if you can) and ask permission to stick them up at your local library, in your school / college / uni and even at work.
Our posters have 'tear-off' bits at the bottom so passers by can take our web address with them. You'll want to cut along the dotted lines a bit :)
Each poster is available as a photo and as a PDF - download which ever you prefer, the photo version is very high quality and a large file, while the PDF version downloads really fast and is probably good enough to print on most printers.
- Break the stigma poster (Hands Version) Photo for 2010 [.jpg 3.2MB]
Break the stigma (Hands Version) PDF for 2010 [150KB]
- Break the stigma poster (Sun Rise Version) Photo for 2010 [.jpg 2.7MB]
Break the stigma poster (Sunb Rise Version) PDF for 2010 [150KB]
- Self-injury doesn't discriminate Photo for 2010 [.jpg 3.2MB]
Self-injury doesn't discriminate PDF for 2010 [150KB]
- We're talking about self-harm Photo for 2010 [.jpg 3.2MB]
We're talking about self-harm PDF for 2010 [150KB]
- What the hell are you on about? Photo for 2010 [.jpg 3.1MB]
What the hell are you on about? PDF for 2010 [150KB]
- Wristbands (Hands Version) Photo for 2010 [.jpg 3.2MB]
Wristbands (Hands Version) PDF for 2010 [150KB]
- Wristbands (Sun Rise Version) Photo for 2010 [.jpg 2.7MB]
Wristbands and Keyrings (Sun Rise Version) PDF for 2010 [150KB]
To save a PDF / photo poster, 'right-click' on its link and select 'Save Target As...' and save it to your computer.
We can't 'send' you posters; they are right here for you to download, email around and print off.
Download the FirstSigns SI Awareness Book
It's only 50 odd pages, but it's a handy resource to have around.
 FirstSigns Self-Injury Awareness Book - 2nd Edition (Revised) [PDF; 500KB]
For printing on A5 paper, or, two pages per A4.
Help your teachers create a Self-Injury Policy for your School or College
Our guidance document helps headteachers and principles consider what is necessary for a school self-injury policy; it's a very popular document, please download it for your school or college / uni.
Creating a School Self-Injury Policy [PDF; 240KB]
You will need Adobe Acrobat Reader to open PDFs, which is free from
Adobe,
and every computer should have it!
All files, programs and downloads within the FirstSigns website have been scanned for virusses, and you are encouraged to scan all files that you download.
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