I am extremely saddened to learn of the death of Ian Murray who died at Christmas.
Ian was an innovative and courageous mental health nurse, whose career spanned 37 years. He worked in hospital and community settings. Between 1993 and 1996 he was nursing manager at Dryll y Car Support Bed Unit in Barmouth, North Wales . Most recently Ian was working as a CPN in Meirionnyd in North Wales. He died on his way to visit a client.
Ian is perhaps best known for his work on the issue of self harm, working in partnership with people who self harmed he pioneered a humanistic approach to assisting people to cope with their experiences, including "safe" self harm techniques and an apprecaition of why people self harm. His training work on self harm and hearing voices with Sharon Lefevre, Ron Coleman and Phil Thomas has proven to be enormously influential and beneficial.
His career long dedication to changing psychiatric nursing will always be remembered. He prefered to do this "from within" by adhering to the "basic principles of empowerment and support.". As he said " .... giving support to people is the significant thing that happens in normal society," he said. "In society we support each other to recover in reciprocal ways. That is what we should try and do in nursing"
Ian was a wonderful guy, always supportive, funny and challenging. He related to people with mental health problems in a special way, you never felt there was a gap. I remember in Maastricht, he was mistaken by a mental health professional as a patient and was offered a free meal, rather then be insulted or embarrassed, he thought it was hilarious and enjoyed his meal even more as a result. We will all miss him very much
We extend our sincere and heartfelt condolences to his family and friends.
You can read more about Ian´s life, beliefs and work, and, if you wish, use the message board to pay tribute to, remember, share experiences and talk about Ian and his work here