About This Project
Distress preceeds suicide and self-harm. To prevent suicide and self harm, people suffering need skill in dealing with distress. We want to teach those skills to the world for free.Ask the Scientists
Join The DiscussionWhat is the context of this research?
Distress often is the emotion state that directly precedes self harm. We have had success in teaching skills for anxiety and depression using an online comic format. We are developing such a program which will teach people a set of skills to manage distress.
Put simply, the goal of this project is reduce self harm and reattempts at suicide.
It will be free and accessible to anyone with internet access.
What is the significance of this project?
If we can help people manage distress we can reduce self-harm and suicide. There is a substantial literature on the effectiveness of internet based treatment for depression and anxiety. We have experience in developing such treatments. We also have experience in treating suicide survivors and those who self-harm by teaching them distress tolerance. We are in a perfect position to combine these strengths to make a difference for these people and their families.
What are the goals of the project?
Funding will pay for a comic illustrator to prepare the distress management course. It will consist of over 200 illustrations. The course content is written, all we need is to illustrate the course, edit it and publish it on the web. The internet site and delivery methods are ready. The research team is ready to recruit patients and collect data. But we lack the funding to bring the course to life. The course will be cost free to all.
Budget
We have written the course. We have proven internet based methods for recruiting trial subjects and collecting data already in place.
We need to illustrate the course. It's in comic format, we need to pay for 200 illustrations at $50 a slide.
Meet the Team
Affiliates
St Vincent's Hospital
Clinical Research Centre for Depression and Anxiety (CRUFAD)
Thiswayup.org.au
Team Bio
I work in a clinical role in acute psychiatry.I see people who hurt themselves every day.
I need your help to help them.
Recent Publication:
CBT for depression: a pilot RCT comparing mobile phone vs. computer
Sarah Watts, Anna Mackenzie, Cherian Thomas, Al Griskaitis, Louise Mewton, Alishia Williams and Gavin Andrews
BMC Psychiatry 2013, 13:49 doi:10.1186/1471-244X-13-49
Biomedcentral
Al Griskaitis
I work in a clinical role in acute psychiatry.
I see people who hurt themselves every day.
I need your help to help them.
LinkedIn
Recent Publication:
CBT for depression: a pilot RCT comparing mobile phone vs. computer
Sarah Watts, Anna Mackenzie, Cherian Thomas, Al Griskaitis, Louise Mewton, Alishia Williams and Gavin Andrews
BMC Psychiatry 2013, 13:49 doi:10.1186/1471-244X-13-49
Biomedcentral
Additional Information
If you or someone you care about is having thoughts of self harming or suicide, get some help from your doctor or emergency department. If you are having problems with depression and anxiety you can also get help from your doctor or psychologist. There are excellent self-help resources for anxiety and depression at Thiswayup self help
Just before people self harm or attempt suicide they are often overwhelmed by distress. Even after seeking help, sometimes these people aren't taught skills to manage distress, instead all they can access is medications which sometimes don't help. Without understanding the role of distress they can't learn to manage distress. The result all to commonly is repeated self harm or repeated suicide attempt.
We can help break this cycle.
We know that courses to teach psychological survival skills can be taught with internet based courses. We can deliver sufferers a skill base to help them move forward. The only barrier is getting the course illustrated and doing a trial to evaluate it effectiveness. The course is written. The researchers are ready. We just need to bring it to life with illustrations and plug them into our website.
It will be free for anyone to use.
Here's the introductory slide from our depression course:
Project Backers
- 14Backers
- 9%Funded
- $1,070Total Donations
- $76.43Average Donation