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People who self-harm: rapid evidence review and survey of practitioner perspectives

This rapid evidence review and survey of practitioner perspectives investigated if self-harm can be a barrier to accessing support and services, and what measures can be taken to overcome these barriers.


References

Bailey, D., Kemp, L., Wright, N., & Mutale, G. (2019). Talk About Self-Harm (TASH): Participatory action research with young people, GPs and practice nurses to explore how the experiences of young people who self-harm could be improved in GP surgeries. Family Practice, 36(5), 621–626.

Bergen, C., Lomas, M., Ryan, M., & McCabe, R. (2023). Gatekeeping and factors underlying decisions not to refer to mental health services after self-harm: Triangulating video-recordings of consultations, interviews, medical records and discharge letters. Qualitative Research in Health, 4, 100249.

Berger, E., Hasking, P., & Martin, G. (2017). Adolescents’ perspectives of youth non-suicidal self-injury prevention. Youth & Society, 49(1), 3–22.

Camm-Crosbie, L., Bradley, L., Shaw, R., Baron-Cohen, S., & Cassidy, S. (2019). “People like me don’t get support”: Autistic adults’ experiences of support and treatment for mental health difficulties, self-injury and suicidality. Autism, 23(6), 1431–1441.

Cassidy, S. A., Robertson, A., Townsend, E., O’Connor, R. C., & Rodgers, J. (2020). Advancing our understanding of self-harm, suicidal thoughts and behaviours in autism. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 50(10), 3445–3449.

Cohen, I. (2019). The impact of interpersonal and intersubjective factors on engagement with psychological services in individuals who repeatedly display deliberate self-harm (DSH) behaviour (Doctoral thesis, University College London). University College London.

Edwards-Bailey, L., Cartwright, T., Smyth, N., & Mackenzie, J. (2023). A qualitative exploration of student self-harm and experiences of support-seeking within a UK university setting. Counselling Psychology Quarterly, 36(4), 638–662.

Geulayov, G., Borschmann, R., Mansfield, K. L., Hawton, K., Moran, P., & Fazel, M. (2022). Utilization and acceptability of formal and informal support for adolescents following self-harm before and during the first COVID-19 lockdown: Results from a large-scale English schools survey. Frontiers in Psychiatry, 13, 881248.

Griffiths, L., Bailey, D., & Slade, K. (2019). Professional and peer support preferences for women who self-harm in custody. Journal of Criminological Psychology, 9(2), 109–121.

Harris, D. (2019). A qualitative study of the experiences of people who use A&E services following deliberate self-harm or attempted suicide and receive no further support (Doctoral thesis, University College London). University College London.

Hassett, A., & Isbister, C. (2017). Young men’s experiences of accessing and receiving help from child and adolescent mental health services following self-harm. SAGE Open, 7(4), 2158244017745112.

Holland, J., Sayal, K., Berry, A., Sawyer, C., Majumder, P., Vostanis, P., Armstrong, M., Harroe, C., Clarke, D., & Townsend, E. (2020). What do young people who self-harm find helpful? A comparative study of young people with and without experience of being looked after in care. Child and Adolescent Mental Health, 25(3), 157–164.

Hulin, J., Huddy, V., Oliver, P., Marshall, J., Mohindra, A., Delaney, B., & Mitchell, C. (2024). Experiences of support for people who access voluntary, community and social enterprise (VCSE) organisations for self-harm: A qualitative study with stakeholder feedback. BMC Public Health, 24(1), 1059.

Johnson, D. R., Ferguson, K., & Copley, J. (2017). Residential staff responses to adolescent self-harm: The helpful and unhelpful. Clinical Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 22(3), 443–454.

Long, M. (2018). “We’re not monsters … we’re just really sad sometimes”: Hidden self-injury, stigma and help-seeking. Health Sociology Review, 27(1), 89–103.

Manning, J. C., Carter, T., Blake, I., Bingham, V., Cooper, J., Turner, A., Marufu, T. C., Wood, D., & Coad, J. (2024). Acute paediatric inpatient care of children and young people admitted with self-harm or eating disorders: A single-centre evaluation. Journal of Child Health Care, 28(2), 302–315.

McAndrew, S., & Warne, T. (2014). Hearing the voices of young people who self-harm: Implications for service providers. International Journal of Mental Health Nursing, 23(6), 570–579.

Moloney, F., Amini, J., Sinyor, M., Schaffer, A., Lanctôt, K. L., & Mitchell, R. H. (2024). Sex differences in the global prevalence of nonsuicidal self-injury in adolescents: A meta-analysis. JAMA Network Open, 7(6), e2415436.

Mughal, F., Dikomitis, L., Babatunde, O. O., & Chew-Graham, C. A. (2021). Experiences of general practice care for self-harm: A qualitative study of young people’s perspectives. British Journal of General Practice, 71(711), e744–e752.

Nearchou, F. A., Bird, N., Costello, A., Duggan, S., Gilroy, J., Long, R., McHugh, L., & Hennessy, E. (2018). Personal and perceived public mental-health stigma as predictors of help-seeking intentions in adolescents. Journal of Adolescence, 66, 83–90.

O’Connor, R. C., Rasmussen, S., Miles, J., & Hawton, K. (2009). Self-harm in adolescents: Self-report survey in schools in Scotland. The British Journal of Psychiatry, 194(1), 68–72.

O’Keeffe, S., Suzuki, M., & McCabe, R. (2023). An ideal-type analysis of people’s perspectives on care plans received from the emergency department following a self-harm or suicidal crisis. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 20(19), 6883.

Owens, C., Hansford, L., Sharkey, S., & Ford, T. (2016). Needs and fears of young people presenting at accident and emergency department following an act of self-harm: Secondary analysis of qualitative data. British Journal of Psychiatry, 208(3), 286–291.

Quinlivan, L. M., Gorman, L., Littlewood, D. L., Monaghan, E., Barlow, S. J., Campbell, S. M., Webb, R. T., & Kapur, N. (2021). “Relieved to be seen”: Patient and carer experiences of psychosocial assessment in the emergency department following self-harm. BMJ Open, 11(2), e044434.

Quinlivan, L., Gorman, L., Littlewood, D. L., Monaghan, E., Barlow, S. J., Campbell, S., Webb, R. T., & Kapur, N. (2022). “Wasn’t offered one, too poorly to ask for one”: Reasons why some patients do not receive a psychosocial assessment following self-harm. Australian & New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry, 56(4), 398–407.

Quinlivan, L., Gorman, L., Monaghan, E., Asmal, S., Webb, R. T., & Kapur, N. (2023). Accessing psychological therapies following self-harm: Qualitative survey of patient experiences and views on improving practice. BJPsych Open, 9(3), e62.

Samaritans Scotland. (2020). Hidden too long: uncovering self-harm in Scotland. Samaritans.

Sanders, R. (2020). Care-experienced children and young people’s mental health [ESSS Outline]. Iriss.

Sass, C., Farley, K., & Brennan, C. (2022). “They have more than enough to do than patch up people like me”: Experiences of seeking support for self-harm in lockdown during the COVID-19 pandemic. Journal of Psychiatric and Mental Health Nursing, 29(4), 544–554.

Scottish Government. (2022). The Scottish Health Survey 2021: Volume 1 – Main report. Edinburgh, Scotland: Scottish Government.

Scottish Government. (2023). Supporting the development of the Self-Harm Strategy for Scotland: Qualitative evidence for TELL Scotland [Research report]. Scottish Government.

Tickell, A., Fonagy, P., Hajdú, K., Obradović, S., & Pilling, S. (2024). “Am I really the priority here?”: Help-seeking experiences of university students who self-harmed. BJPsych Open, 10(2), e40.

Troya, M. I., Chew-Graham, C. A., Babatunde, O., Bartlam, B., Mughal, F., & Dikomitis, L. (2019). Role of primary care in supporting older adults who self-harm: A qualitative study in England. British Journal of General Practice, 69(688), e740–e751.

Wadman, R., Armstrong, M., Clarke, D., Harroe, C., Majumder, P., Sayal, K., Vostanis, P., & Townsend, E. (2018). Experience of self-harm and its treatment in looked-after young people: An interpretative phenomenological analysis. Archives of Suicide Research, 22(3), 365–37.

Contact

Email: socialresearch@gov.scot

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