I’ve mentioned a few times about how in practice based discussions with service leaders in Leeds I’ve heard the comment that social media and networking is too high a risk to engage in.

The reason given being that there will likely be individuals encouraged to take their own lives or copy cat suicides.  I point out each time that an individual must have suicidal intent to do this - the fact that communication has been made through the internet is not really any different to any other kind of medium that might be perceived as a prompt.

In twitter conversation with Paul Watson from NAVCA he noted the need to ensure that those active in mental health were as aware of the positive use of social media as they are the negative.

I’ll be focusing attention on these positive stories - feel free to post any sightings to me at kate.brown@imhleedsmind.org.uk