Off-line resources for those who self-injure

• USA
• Canada
• United Kingdom
• Australia
• Internet and other

USA

Author of The Scarred Soul: Understanding and ending self-inflicted violence, a very wise and useful self-help book or people who self-harm. She's recently reopened her private practice.

Butler Hospital
345 Blackstone Boulevard
Providence, RI 02906
(401) 455-6200

Partial (day) hospital DBT program. Specifically mentions self-injury, but in context of BPD.

Adolescent Psychiatric Services at Fairfax Hospital
10200 N.E. 132nd Street
Kirkland, Washington 98034
Telephone: 425-821-2000
Toll free: 800-435-7221
Fax: 425-821-9010

"Fairfax provides services for individuals ages 12 to 18 with psychological, emotional and behavioral problems. We approach the adolescent's treatment through thorough consideration of their social, academic and family environments. "We value and explore perceptions of the patient, family, treating physician, school and community professionals. Our professionals will then target those areas that are going to be critical in the stabilization process:

• Poor school performance or truancy
• Running away or other self-harm behavior
• Abuse of alcohol or other drugs
• Explosiveness or aggression
• Disruptive or oppositional defiant behavior
• Withdrawal or isolation from peers
• Anti-social behavior
• Suicidal ideation"

Frederick County Mental Health Association
357-359 W. Patrick Street
Frederick, MD 21701
301-663-6135
24-hour Hotline: 301-662-2255
1-800-422-0009 (in MD only)
A nonprofit counseling center with a 24-hour crisis line. I don't have much information here, but they have a sliding scale, will contact you for intake within a week, and specifically mention self-injury on their web page.

Independent Living Center of the North Shore
583 Chestnut Street
Lynn, MA 01904
(617) 593-7500

Publishes the pamphlet "Women and Self Injury" and offers support groups.

Institute for Bio-behavioral Therapy and Research
935 Northern Boulevard
Great Neck, NY 11021
(516) 487-7116

Mentions SI specifically. They claim to rely on "conservative use of drug therapy, a psychological approach that focuses upon the present and future of the patient rather than upon the past, emphasis on nutrition and physical exercise, family participation (if necessary), [and] educating patients and relatives about their problems."

Linehan Training Group
4556 University Way NE
College Center Building Ste 222
Seattle, WA 98105
info@dbt-seattle.com

Although LTG is concerned with training mental health professionals in the use of treatments such as Dialectical Behavioral Therapy, it's possible that someone at this site can direct you to a nearby DBT therapist. Marsha Linehan is also running studies in the use of DBT at the University of Washington. DBT is demanding for both client and therapist, but when it works the results are amazing. Dialectical Behavioral Therapy In a Nut Shell

The Menninger Clinic
PO Box 829
Topeka, KS 66601-0829
General 1-800-288-0317
Admissions/Care Coordination 1-800-351-9058
Karl Menninger School of Psychiatry & Mental Health Sciences
1-800-288-0317 Ext 5833

Menninger has a 95-bed hospital for adults and a 48-bed hospital for children and adolescents. Special units are available for emergency admissions, short-term diagnosis and treatment, and patients requiring treatment for alcoholism and drug-related problems, eating disorders, self-harm, dissociative disorders, and sexual abuse. Menninger offers partial hospital, halfway house, community residence, and day treatment programs.

Pittsburgh Action Against Rape (PAAR)
81 S. 19th Street
Pittsburgh, PA 15203
(412) 431-5665

Support for anyone who has been sexually assaulted. Self-injury group therapy, short- and long-term counseling, information and referral. Also does some community outreach and education. Publishes a workbook for self-injurers.

Rock Creek Hospital
40 Timberline Drive
Lemont, IL 60439

Inpatient self-injury program; insight-oriented and cognitive-behavioral approaches.

SAFE Alternatives Program
MacNeal Hospital
Berwyn, IL
1-800-DONT CUT

"SAFE Alternatives is an eclectic program which combines cognitive-behavioral interventions with milieu therapy, expressive therapies, intensive group work, and psychodynamic therapies."

The Sanctuary
Friends Hospital
4641 Roosevelt Boulevard
Philadelphia, PA 19124-2399
(215) 831-6916

The Sanctuary is a special inpatient unit designed to meet the needs of trauma survivors and balance the needs to be safe, to be nurtured, and to have boundaries. They specifically target self-injury, but only take patients with traumatic pasts. You can see a copy of their patient handbook or reflections of Sanctuary alumni on the web.

Other therapists I know of who do DBT or treat SI

Newsletters in USA:

Self-help/Support groups in USA:

Adult Survivors Struggling with Self-Injury
New Hope Healing Institute
nhhi@nhhi.net
Indianapolis and Marion, IN
(317) 387-1926 for information and intake

Beginning the last week of January 99. Six-week group, with options to continue with more in-depth groups and then long-term open groups to follow. Group is limited to adult abuse survivors and will have no more than twelve members.

Trichotillomania support group
Schaumburg, IL
Contact: Karleen Wink, M.S.
(847) 519-7770

A support group for compulsive hair pullers in the Chicago area. Monday evenings, 8 to 9 pm.

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CANADA

"Kids Help Phone is Canada's only toll-free, national telephone counseling service for children and youth. We provide counseling services directly to children and youth between the ages of 4 and 19 years and help adults aged twenty and over find the counseling services they need."

S.A.F.E. in Canada
735 Wonderland Rd. N. Suite 224
London, Ontario
N6H 5N7
(519) 857-7259.

Provides therapy and support for self-injurers in Canada, teen programs, professional education, workshops (including one for family and friends), and literature. Cognitive-behavioral community-based model.

Youth Services Bureau
465 MacLaren Street
Ottawa, ON
(613) 234-5511

Free outpatient counseling (client-centered and cognitive-behavioral) for low-income youth in Ottawa. Mentions self-injury specifically.

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UNITED KINGDOM

42nd Street
Suicide/Self-Harm worker
2nd Floor, Swan Buildings
20 Swan Street
Manchester M4 5JW
0161 862 0170

42nd Street is a mental health service for Manchester young people aged fifteen to twenty-five who face wide and varied problems including self-harm and suicide. They offer a variety of individual support alongside a range of groups based at the resource and within the local community. They have initiated specific projects including a suicide/self-harm project which itself offers individual and group support to young people. They completed a research project on young people, self-harm and suicide and produced an excellent book based on their findings.

Barnardo/Social Services Leaving Care Project
76c Walter Road Swansea SA1 1RQ
England
Tim Phillips
0179 246 0178

Supports young people in educating social workers and other intervention services on the rational and driving forces behind self-harm and self-injury. Explores positive responses as well as instances when intervention is effective or counter-productive. Led, developed and delivered by young people who self-harm or injure themselves.

The Basement Project
P.O. Box 5 Abergavenny NP7 5XW
Wales
Lois Arnold and Anne Magill
0187 385 6524

A community resource providing support groups for individuals abused in childhood as well as training, supervision, consultation, research and publications. The Basement Project has carried out research and worked extensively with people (including young people) who self-injure, and has set-up the self-injury forum (leaflet available on request). It also works to encourage good practice and provides training workshops and support for workers in the field of self-injury.

Brent Adolescent Centre
Johnston House 51 Winchester Avenue London NW6 7TT
England
Dr Catalina Bronstein
0171 328 0918

The Centre will provide assessment, psychotherapeutic consultations and, when needed, psychotherapeutic treatment. It will investigate and try to understand the underlying anxieties that generate such behaviour in young people in order to help adolescents understand why they need to attack themselves. Pilot project for three years.

Bristol Crisis Service for Women
PO Box 654
Bristol
BS99 1XH
0117 925 1119

Resources for women who self-harm, including several booklets and information sheets and help line service on Friday and Saturday nights between 9.00 p.m. and 12.30 a.m. Produces SHOUT, a newsletter for women who SI. From what I've seen of their stuff, they're an extremely valuable resource for women in Europe and the UK who self-injure. They recently published "The Hurt Yourself Less" Workbook, written by people who self-injure, for people who self-injure.

Crisis Recovery Unit
Fitzmary 1
Bethlem Royal Hospital
Monks Orchard Road
Beckenham, Kent
BR3 3BX
0181 776 4273 for referral details
0181 776 4102 for clinical details

The CRU offers humane and understanding inpatient SI treatment. From what Steve has told me of this unit, it sounds nearly ideal. I've heard a few negative reports from people who have been through the program, but also several positive ones. NHS.

Loughborough Youth Affairs
Mountfields Lodge Youth Centre
Epinal Way
Loughborough
LE11 OQE
England
Janet Holland
0150 923 6043

One-to-one youth support work, mainly with young women who self harm. In addition to youth work with young women who self harm, Janet Holland has an interest in exploring and carrying out research on 'youth work' as opposed to 'medical' responses to self harm. Youth work responses might adopt an empowerment model to encourage development and personal growth.

National Self-Harm Network
C/o Survivors Speak Out
34 Osnaburgh Street
London
NW1 3ND
0171 916 5472

(comments by Steve Blake, a UK psychiatric worker) Led by Louise Pembroke - active S'Her. Political campaigning survivor led organization for rights of s'hers. Takes up complaints against A&E depts. Compiling list of poor treatment received by s'hers. Also explores day-to-day issues - how to cover up scars. Publishes a SH sheet & 'Crisis Card' to take to A&E if you need medical intervention but are too distressed to fight for treatment. Particularly good if you've been sh*t on by psychiatric or medical services.

North West Self-Injury Interest Group
Christine Hogg
Maureen Burke
0151 471 2460

Primarily a resource for medical professionals, the North West Self-Injury Interest Group acknowledges the difficulty of caring for self-injurers but seeks to provide resources to allow medical professionals to do so in a way that validates caregiver and client. They have an excellent resource pack available for professionals and might be able to refer you to help in northwest England.

Moira Toms C.Q.S.W
Bramblewood
Guildford Road
CRANLEIGH
Surrey
GU6 8PR
0148 327 4183

She offers family, couple, individual therapy - psychotherapy. Referral from host organizations and GP's, Self referrals, Social Services. Offering therapy to anyone with a problem to include mental health - i.e. Depression, Eating Disorders, Family/Couple disharmony, Breakdown of relationship, Alcohol or drug related problems, Adolescent difficulties, Self harm. Area based: Cranleigh Village - However can be flexible and willing to negotiate for accommodation near client.

Barry Kiehn
Consultant Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist
Gwynfa Adolescent Service
Pen-y-Bryn Road
Upper Colwyn Bay, Clwyd, North Wales, LL29 6AL.

Michaela Swales
Chartered Clinical Psychologist, Gwynfa Adolescent Service and
Lecturer in the Psychology of Adolescence
University College of North Wales
Bangor, Gwynedd, LL57 2DG.
pss051@bangor.ac.uk

Kiehn and Swales wrote a wonderful explication of DBT therapy and might know more about the availability of DBT in England.

Mutual Support Groups in the UK

An unfacilitated self-help group for women who self-injure. It is independent of any organisation and is run solely by the women who attend.

Hidden Scars
Contact: Tracie Adams
0127 477 0149

Self Help support group in the Bradford area for both men and women to talk about self-harm in an informal. safe, secure, non judgmental environment for complete confidentiality. Meets every Tuesday 3-4:30pm and Wednesday 6:30-8pm. Phone line available Monday and Tuesday 11am-3pm.

Cutting Back
C/o Self Help Nottingham
Ormiston House
32-36 Pelham Street
Nottingham
NG1 2EG

A Nottingham based closed support group, hoping to start an evening support group as well. Help line available on Friday and Saturday night, 9pm-midnight on 0115 958 3399.

North London Women's Self-Harm Support Group
Contact: Helen Blackwell
7 Fernhall
Freirn Park
London N12 9LT

For the London area.

A closed group in Brighton that has been running since January 1996 with a focus on self-injury and what lies behind it.

STEPS - Support, Tolerance, Empathy, Perseverance and Strength
Contact: Clare Shaw
Flat 3, 23 Ullet Road
Aigburth
Liverpool

The qualities which enable women as individuals and together, to live with and overcome self harm. Meets weekly in Wavertree, Liverpool.

Manchester Women's Self Harm Support Group
Contact: Quibilah Montsho
0161 226 0787

The women's self-harm support group meets in the first Saturday of each month at Hulme Library in Manchester. The group provides a safe, supportive and non-judgmental space for women who self harm to express their feelings.

SSIAG
Contact: Tracy
0159 581 0330 or
Alan Murdoch 0159 574 3006

The Shetland Self-Injury Action Group is hoping to meet regularly in Lerwick and Brae. It will be facilitated by an experienced counselor, sympathetic to the issues around self-injury. The group has been set up with the efforts of the Shetland Health Board Mental Health Team, and Bristol Crisis Service for Women.

Newsletters in the UK:

SHOUT is a bi-monthly newsletter which aims to break down isolation and provide support for women affected by self-harm (will accept subscriptions from men too). It is read and contributed to by women all over the country, by groups and by professionals who work with people affected by self-harm. SHOUT includes articles, pen-pals/contacts, letters, poems, cartoons, book reviews, plus details of help lines, groups and resources. The mailing list is confidential and copies will be sent in a plain envelope.

To subscribe, contact:
SHOUT
PO Box 654
Bristol BS99 1XH

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AUSTRALIA

Youth Services Centalink, Youth Suicide Intervention Program, assesses young people in crisis and at risk of self-harm or suicide.

Wesley Private Hospital
91 Milton Street
Ashfield NSW
2131
9716 1400

All I know about them is that they exist, are affiliated with a church, and mention self-injury on their web page.

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INTERNET & OTHER

The Samaritans are a non-religious charity that have been offering emotional support to the suicidal and despairing for over 40 years by phone, visit and letter. Callers are guaranteed absolute confidentiality and retain the right to make their own decisions including the decision to end their life. The service is now available via E-mail, run from Cheltenham, England, and can be reached from anywhere with Internet access. Trained volunteers read and reply to mail once a day, every day of the year.

SASH - Survivors of Abuse and Self Harming
Pen friend network offers support, friendship and understanding on a one to one basis in writing.
Contact:
SASH
20 Lackmore Road
Enfield
Middlesex
EN1 4PB

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