self-harm

  • Conflating risk and mental illness

    In this thoughtful article, a young person, Anna, reflects on her experience of risk being conflated with mental illness in child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS), highlighting crucial lessons for clinicians, commissioners, and policy makers.

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  • Online self-harm content might provide peer support to young people

    Youth today find themselves living in an era of social media, with easy access to a wide range of social networking sites. Unfortunately, emerging evidence suggests that some social technologies might cause more harm than good to some young people’s mental health.

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  • September 2020 – The Bridge

    The month of September is a challenging time for young people, as they start a new school year. September 2020 will be particularly difficult for many, as they must also deal with the stresses of the coronavirus pandemic and social distancing, as well as the effects of increasing financial pressures on families.

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  • Dr. Alexandra Pitman and Dr. Sarah Rowe

    Self-harm in a time of isolation: What is the evidence to support mobile and internet-based psychological interventions for self-harm?

    In this blog we summarise the findings and implications of a recent systematic review of studies evaluating the effectiveness and acceptability of mobile- and internet-based psychological interventions for self-harm in adolescents and adults.

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  • July 2020 – The Bridge

    In this issue, we summarise recent studies on a wide range of topics – including sleep, sensory symptoms, emotional symptoms, disinhibition, alcohol misuse, complex PTSD symptoms, and self-harm – which reveal new insights helping us to better understand and address psychopathology in young people.

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  • Who can best support young people who self-harm?

    A new study published in Child and Adolescent Mental Health has investigated what forms of support young people who self-harm find helpful.

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  • DBT-A can enhance emotion regulation in ethnic minority youth

    Ethnic minority youth often experience environmental and culturally relevant stressors, putting them at risk of developing self-regulation difficulties and engaging in self-harm.

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  • Self-harm in children and adolescents: attention seeking or cause for concern?

    Is the reporting of self-harm improving due to better awareness, or are young people really self-harming at increasing rates? How concerned should we be about the increase? In this blog, I draw on recent work by my colleagues in the Multicentre Study of Self-Harm in England.

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  • Self-harm and Suicide

    Worldwide, 10-20% of young people report having self-harmed at least once before the age of 18, and self-harm is one of the strongest risk factors for completed suicide. Suicide is the 2nd leading cause of death for young people globally, and therefore predictors such as self-harm are of great importance.

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  • Suicide and Self-Harm Special Edition

    The National Confidential Enquiry into Suicide and Safety in Mental Health Annual Report (2018)  highlighted that suicide in the under 20’s is rising generally and that the number of suicides rises towards late teens.

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