Re-framing self-harm in Norwich

As part of the Early Action Neighbourhood Fund, Mancroft Advice Project (MAP) has started delivering training and CPD work to teachers in the three academies and schools attached to the project. The first event was for staff at City Academy Norwich, where MAP delivered Self Harm training to 20 members of the academy team. This was identified as a training need by the teachers, when MAP conducted a staff survey around emotion wellbeing and mental health late in 2015.

The course covers background information regarding self harm, signs and symptoms, why young people self harm and tools to support young people around this issue. The staff gave excellent feedback on the training, with one participant commenting “There was excellent information given, in a sensitive and engaging way. Advice was also given on supporting young people and dealing with self harm”. Another in attendance said “It was useful to reframe self harm as a normalised event, not just a reaction to a crisis event”

We asked the teachers to rate their confidence in supporting young people around self harm on a scale of 1-5. Before the training the average score was 2.3/5, however once the training finished this rose significantly to 4.1/5. The same training will also be delivered within CNS and Notre Dame within the coming months.