Self-harm in young people: a perspective for mental health nursing care (original) (raw)

Young people who self-harm: a prospective 1-year follow-up study

Social psychiatry and psychiatric epidemiology, 2015

To explore repetition, service provision and service engagement following presentation of young people to emergency services with self-harm. 969 patients who presented to accident and emergency services after self-harm were followed up prospectively for a period of 1 year. Data on rates, method, clinical history, initial service provision, engagement and repetition (defined as re-presenting to emergency services with further self-harm) were gathered from comprehensive electronic records. Young people were less likely to repeat self-harm compared to those aged 25 and above. A psychiatric history and a history of childhood trauma were significant predictors of repetition. Young people were more likely to receive self-help as their initial service provision, and less likely to receive acute psychiatric care or a hospital admission. There were no differences in engagement with services between young people and those aged 25 and above. Younger individuals may be less vulnerable to repeti...

The emergency care of young people who self-harm: an exploration of attitudes towards young people who self-harm and the care they receive from practitioners working in pre-hospital and hospital based emergency services

2012

Aim: Using a mixed methods approach, this thesis seeks to explore the attitudes of emergency care staff towards young people (aged 12− 18 years) who self-harm and to gain an understanding of the basis of attitudes that exist. Background: This thesis has drawn on Strauss et al’s (1964), concept of the hospital as a negotiated order, a perspective that has latterly been applied to the organisation of hospital AE patients who self-harm are amongst those adversely judged. However the extent to which these categorisations extend to young people was not wholly clear. Findings from earlier research that had considered this were inconclusive and inconsistent (Dingwall & Murray 1983, White 2002). Methods: A mixed methods approach, using a triangulation convergent design was employed. Staff employed in four emergency departments in South East London and five London Ambulance complexes that served these departments were surveyed; data from 143 questionnaires were analysed using SPSS. Qualitati...

Understanding the Experience and Needs of School Counsellors When Working with Young People Who Engage in Self-Harm

International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 2019

Self-harm rates are increasing globally and demand for supporting, treating and managing young people who engage in self-harm often falls to schools. Yet the approach taken by schools varies. This study aimed to explore the experience of school staff managing self-harm, and to obtain their views on the use of guidelines in their work. Twenty-six pastoral care staff from New Zealand were interviewed. Interviews were analyzed and coded using thematic analysis. Three themes emerged: The burden of the role; discrepancies in expectations, training, and experience; and the need for guidelines to support their work. This research, therefore, demonstrated a need for guidelines to support school staff to provide support around decision making and response to self-harm in the school environment.

The self and self-harm – toward a more nuanced understanding of self-harm in adolescence

Routledge eBooks, 2024

Self-harm is increasing in many countries, and especially among adolescent girls between 12 and 15 years of age. In the following, I will introduce the phenomenon of self-harm and give a short historical view of the function of self-harm. I will present findings from qualitative studies and highlight the importance of relating subjective reasons for self-harm during adolescence to developmental and relational perspectives. I argue that self-harm is closely related to self-experience and, further, that diversities in the form and semantic content of a persons’ meaning making of self-harm may provide information about affect-integration and self-representation. Three prototypical self-representations are discussed – “the punished self”, “the unknown self”, and “the harmed self”. Knowledge of how self-harm can be related to self-experience and self-representation may enhance self-understanding and treatment motivation and inform clinical adjustment

Young people who self-harm

The British Journal of Psychiatry, 2007

Background Self-harm among young people in the UK is possibly increasing but little is known about the reasons young people give for cessation and their link with gender or employment status. Aims To investigate self-harm in young people, prevalence, methods used, motivations for starting and ceasing, service use, and how these are related to gender, parental social class and current labour market position. Method Population-based survey of 1258 18-to 20-year-olds living in the Central Clydeside Conurbation, Scotland. Results Both past and current rates of self-harm were highest among those outside the labour market. This group was most likely to want to kill themselves and did not cite specialist mental health services as helpful in ceasing self-harm. Those in full-time education more often self-harmed for a brief time, mainly to reduce anxiety. Conclusions Current labour market position was a stronger predictor than parental social class or gender for self-harm, and was linked to ...