Abstract
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.
Highlights
Worldwide, rates of youth self-harm are increasing [2]
Depending on how it is measured, between one quarter and close to a half of secondary school students in New Zealand have engaged in self-harm, and up to 21% have seriously thought about suicide in the previous 12 months [9,11,12]
Clustering of self-harm in young people is of concern given youth suicides are twice as likely to occur in clusters than adult suicides [13], and because young people who have been exposed to self-harm among friends and/or whānau are at increased risk of self-harm [14]
Summary
Rates of youth self-harm (self-inflicted injury of self-poisoning irrespective of motivation or the individual’s intent to die or not [1]) are increasing [2]. Depending on how it is measured, between one quarter and close to a half of secondary school students in New Zealand have engaged in self-harm, and up to 21% have seriously thought about suicide in the previous 12 months [9,11,12]. Young people spend much of their time in the school environment and it is a key influencer of psychosocial and emotional development [15,16,17,18,19,20]. It is an important context for prevention
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More From: International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health
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