Teenage Misadventure

The challenge

Following the success of Barbara’s Story – a campaign to raise awareness of how to care for dementia patients at Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Trust, we were asked to help the East London Foundation NHS Trust create a similar film and training programme for healthcare professionals who come into contact with teenagers who self-harm. The project was supported by the Burdett Trust for Nursing.

Our solution

The aim of this project was to improve the experience of young people who have harmed themselves when they interface with professionals and particularly healthcare staff, often in urgent or emergency situations, coming to A&E and paediatric hospital departments. This is often a significant opportunity to begin to engage a young person with the right kind of help and support and to start to understand any issues in their lives that may contribute to their situation. By working closely with East London FT, we wrote, designed and produced a training resources pack to work alongside three films that highlighted some of the distress and dysfunction a young person who has harmed themselves may experience.