Our Encounters with Suicide. This item is unavailable.Our Encounters with Suicide

The 'Our Encounters with - ' series collect together unnmediated, unsanitised narratives by service-users, past service-users and carers. These stories of direct experience will be of great benefit to those interested in narrative enquiry, and to those studying and practising in the field of mental health. The collection bring together a range of voices on the theme of suicide - those who have been suicidal, along side the friends, family and staff who have lived and worked with them. Too often the rhetoric of 'suicidology' is occupied only by those who have never had personal experience of suicidality. The first-person voice is strangely absent. These frank accounts go some way to correcting the balance. We hope that these narratives will be helpful for people who may have had similar encounters, or are harbouring future suicidal intentions, and for those who care for them personally or professionally; that readers can use the stories in the book to make better sense of their own experiences and decisions. Ultimately we hope that the book will facilitate a more empathic understanding of the experiences of others generally, and of people who were close to and have been lost to suicide.

Dr Alec Grant is a Principal Lecturer in the School of Nursing and Midwifery at the University of Brighton. He qualified as a mental health nurse in the mid-1970s and went on to study psychology, social science and psychotherapy. He is widely published in the fields of ethnography, autoethnography, clinical supervision, cognitive behavioural psychotherapy, and communication and interpersonal skills. For the last few years, his research interests have been in the area of narrative inquiry and writing, especially around mental health survival. Judith Haire was born in Kent and had a successful academic and professional career. At thirty seven her career was cut short when she experienced an acute psychotic episode. Once recovered she worked in the voluntary sector and studied at college. Judith has been published in Mental Health Practice, Community Care, Your Voice in Sheffield Mental Health magazines and her first book Don't Mind Me waspublished in 2008 (Chipmunkapublishing) She wrote it to help others as well as herself, and to inform mental health professionals and anyone wanting to gain an insight into mental illness. Judith contributed to Mental Health Publishing And Empowerment by Jason Pegler, (Chipmunkapublishing, 2009), Our Encounters With Madness (Edited by Grant, Biley & Walker, PCCS Books, 2011) and Soul Journey by Lisa Cherry, (Wilson King Publishing 2012). The late Dr Francis C. Biley initially trained as a mental health and an adult nurse and after holding a range of clinical and practice development posts moved into undergraduate and postgraduate research and teaching. He co-edited Our Encounters With Madness (PCCS Books 2011) with Alec Grant and Hannah Walker. He was Associate Professor in the Centre for Qualitative Research at Bournemouth University, UK , Adjunct Professor of Nursing at Seton Hall University, New Jersey, USA and a Governor of a local Foundation Trust hospital. Brendan Stone has lived with mental health problems for nearly 40 years. He lives in Sheffield and has worked extensively with users of mental health services.