Abstract
Background: Little is known about the perceived acceptability and usefulness of supports that adolescents have accessed following self-harm, especially since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Aims: To examine the utilisation and acceptability of formal, informal, and online support accessed by adolescents following self-harm before and during the pandemic.
Method: Cross-sectional survey (OxWell) of 10,560 secondary school students aged 12-18 years in the south of England. Information on self-harm, support(s) accessed after self-harm, and satisfaction with support received were obtained via a structured, self-report questionnaire. No tests for significance were conducted.
Results: 1,457 (12.5%) students reported having ever self-harmed and 789 (6.7%) reported self-harming during the first national lockdown. Informal sources of support were accessed by the greatest proportion of respondents (friends: 35.9%; parents: 25.0%). Formal sources of support were accessed by considerably fewer respondents (Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services: 12.1%; psychologist/ psychiatrist: 10.2%; general practitioner: 7.4%). Online support was accessed by 8.6% of respondents, and 38.3% reported accessing no support at all. Informal sources of support were rated as most helpful, followed by formal sources, and online support. Of the respondents who sought no support, 11.3% reported this as being helpful.
Conclusions: More than a third of secondary school students in this sample did not seek any help following self-harm. The majority of those not seeking help did not find this to be a helpful way of coping. Further work needs to determine effective ways of overcoming barriers to help-seeking among adolescents who self-harm and improving perceived helpfulness of the supports accessed.
Aims: To examine the utilisation and acceptability of formal, informal, and online support accessed by adolescents following self-harm before and during the pandemic.
Method: Cross-sectional survey (OxWell) of 10,560 secondary school students aged 12-18 years in the south of England. Information on self-harm, support(s) accessed after self-harm, and satisfaction with support received were obtained via a structured, self-report questionnaire. No tests for significance were conducted.
Results: 1,457 (12.5%) students reported having ever self-harmed and 789 (6.7%) reported self-harming during the first national lockdown. Informal sources of support were accessed by the greatest proportion of respondents (friends: 35.9%; parents: 25.0%). Formal sources of support were accessed by considerably fewer respondents (Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services: 12.1%; psychologist/ psychiatrist: 10.2%; general practitioner: 7.4%). Online support was accessed by 8.6% of respondents, and 38.3% reported accessing no support at all. Informal sources of support were rated as most helpful, followed by formal sources, and online support. Of the respondents who sought no support, 11.3% reported this as being helpful.
Conclusions: More than a third of secondary school students in this sample did not seek any help following self-harm. The majority of those not seeking help did not find this to be a helpful way of coping. Further work needs to determine effective ways of overcoming barriers to help-seeking among adolescents who self-harm and improving perceived helpfulness of the supports accessed.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Article number | 881248 |
| Number of pages | 20 |
| Journal | Frontiers in Psychiatry |
| Volume | 13 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 24 Jun 2023 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:This research was funded by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Applied Research Collaboration Oxford and Thames Valley at Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust (MF), the NIHR Oxford Health Biomedical Research Centre (BRC-1215-20005 to KM), an MRC Mental Health Data Pathfinder award (MC_PC_17215) to the University of Oxford, and the Westminster Foundation. KH is a member of the National Suicide Prevention Strategy for England Advisory Group and is funded by Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust. PM is part-funded by the NIHR Biomedical Research Center at University Hospitals Bristol and Weston NHS Foundation Trust and the University of Bristol and also receives salary support from Avon & Wiltshire Mental Health Partnership NHS Trust. RB is funded by an Australian National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Emerging Leadership-2 Investigator Grant (GNT2008073). The funders played no role in the writing of the manuscript, or the decision to submit for publication. The views expressed in this publication are those of the author(s) and not necessarily those of the NIHR, the MRC, or the Department of Health and Social Care. GG is funded by the Department of Health and Social Care, UK.
Acknowledgements:
The investigators acknowledge the philanthropic support of the donors to the University of Oxford's COVID−19 Research Response Fund. We would like to thank all students who took the time to participate in the OxWell school survey, and the many staff at all of the participating schools for the considerable time and planning they put into conducting the survey at a hectic time. We thank colleagues in local authorities and clinical commissioning groups, including Donna Husband, Lajla Johansson, Giovanni Ferri, and Janette Fulwood, for all their time and support in promoting the survey. We would also like to thank Pauline Foster and Elaine Purse at Foster and Brown Research Limited who provide the infrastructure for the OxWell survey. We thank Elise Sellars (University of Oxford) for her help with data processing, Danielle Newby (University of Oxford) and Christoph Jindra (Humboldt University of Berlin) for their contribution to data analysis.
Publisher Copyright:
Copyright © 2022 Geulayov, Borschmann, Mansfield, Hawton, Moran and Fazel.
Keywords
- Self-harm
- adolescence
- school
- help-seeking
- mental health care
- self-poisoning
- self-injury
