Help needed now!!!

I’m Laura, a UK-based PhD student at the Open University. I’m also a senior social worker, assessing adults who want to adopt and finding children for those adults. I returned to study and did an MSc in Child and Adolescent Mental Health. For my research I interviewed young people whose sibling had an eating disorder. One young girl was burdened with her sister’s suicide attempts and felt distressed, needing to share the details.

I recognised that for young people, there can be explicit or hidden communications of suicidal distress leading up to an attempt. Those communications may be verbal or non-verbal, but if just one person around the young person notices or recognises the signs of distress, then a conversation or getting them help could be a lifesaver. It’s not simple, and is reliant on there being some changes in the young person’s presentation that someone could notice. We also do know that in some cases people are adept at hiding their thoughts and feelings before an attempt. Additionally, it is not always possible for someone to notice, or act on, the nuances of communication. Yet, if in just one single situation someone recognises a sign of distress because we have highlighted it in this research, then it is worth it.

So, I am looking for four or five more participants aged 16-25 years old who would be willing share their story of communicating, or not communicating their suicidal feelings leading up to an attempt. Or, it may be a retrospective account of an attempt. I will ask if there’s anyone I could also interview around that person at the time, who may or may not have noticed anything different in that person’s presentation or communication. After providing a consent form and information form, I would set up a really informal chat online. We would then set up a date for a more formal interview where I invite the participant to verbally share their story and that could be in person or online. I hope to present the information about communication prior to an attempt in research papers, but also to present it creatively, to make it as accessible and useful as possible.

If you can help, or know someone who could, please email me at the Open University on laura.patterson@open.ac.uk or ask me any questions. I hope you’ll agree that it is vitally important research.