At the end of January YouthNet had a meeting with our European partners on a project funded by the European Commission and aimed to provide support to young people who self-harm. *
There were a lot of interesting conversations about how self-harm is perceived and approached in Italy, Slovenia, Denmark and UK, but what I’d like to focus here is a critical issue for all the countries: only a tiny proportion of self-harmers access the support needed. Young people experiencing self-harm find insurmountable barriers to their disclosure… But why? Is this because the support available is not adequate? Or is it more about an attitudinal barrier?
One of the main barriers discussed was confidentiality. In fact, young people have concerns that a GP or other professionals will talk about their situation to their parents or even to future employees. These observations are backed up by some of the conversations we see on TheSite.org discussion boards and live chats :
“I’m scared of going to my GP for help with self-harming […] I think it’s probably time I tried to get some real help. My only problem is I have so many dreams for my future I’m still a student and I’m scared having self-harm on my records may stop me achieving my goals”
”I just wanted to tell my tutor in general that I self harm. What would happen after I told my tutor? […]. Will they have to tell my parents?”
Also, many young self-harmers think adults and professionals won’t understand them and they won’t give the right support. Or, as a respondent of one of our surveys stated, “[you should give more information on] the attitudes of health care professionals if you are admitted to A&E and the poor care you may receive due to people not understanding” .
In the UK, for example, the top focus is often on the physical injury than the emotional issues. Self-harming is seen as suicidal attempt and leads to more emphasis on assessing the suicidal risks than dealing with self-harm as phenomenon per se…
Another barrier discussed was shame and the fear of being stigmatised. Young people who self-harm can prefer to remain “hidden” than face the stigma; this is especially true when it comes to talking to adults rather than with peers. In fact, as highlighted by a research by Samaritans and by the conversation with partners, young people are more likely to talk to their friends about their situation than adults.
Also, young people who self-harm find it difficult to talk to their loved ones, because they fear the impact it will have on them. As one respondent of our survey said, young people want to know “How you can disguise self-harm from people around you so they don’t get hurt”. Or, as a member of TheSite.org discussion boards wrote, “I have not told anyone that I self harmed and cannot bring myself to as it is over now and will worry everyone so much!“
With our partners we also discussed how control can be a key barrier to disclosure and how we might approach undertaking more research about this so we can learn more about how to help young people facing this kind of barrier.
Understanding the barriers to disclosure is fundamental to be able to deliver the right support and advice, but during our conversation it was felt not enough researches have been done on the topic. As part of this European project on self-harm, YouthNet will be working with its partners to explore this area – and we will have more to share next month, as National self-injury awareness day approaches
* Partners involved are: Photofficine from Italy, Cyberhus from Denmark, Institute UTRIP from Slovenia, 42nd Street and Depaul UK from the UK
