Self-harming is common amongst young people in OoHC, youth justice and alternative school settings. As noted in my last post, I just love a succinct summary of the evidence of the causes and treatment of mental health issues. Today’s post provides such a summary on the causes and interventions for self-harm.
This YouTube video, called Self Injury Knowledge and Skills is by Dr. Laurie Craigen from the Farley Centre in the US provides such a succinct evidence based summary.
How professionals might use this video
As a psychologist, I treat many young people for self-harm in my private practice. I find this YouTube video very useful in two ways:
- Firstly, for parents whose children are self-harming
- Secondly for myself in terms of updating my professional knowledge
Note of caution
I never recommend this video to young people who self-harm not so much because of the content of this particular video but because there are far too many YouTube videos that glorify self-harm.
A staff development opportunity
Many Practitioners are in managerial roles and are looking for opportunities to up-skill their staff. This video provides such an opportunity given, as noted above, the prevalence of self-harm in OoHC, juvenile justice and alternative school environments.
The video runs for 1hour and 10 minutes which may be too long for some staff development sessions. However, it can be logically divided into two sections:
- Section 1: The definition and treatment of self-harm (ie the first 40 minutes of the video)
- Section 2: The treatment of self (ie the last 30 minutes of the video
Suggested Questions
- What implications, if any, does this video suggest for our current practice in managing self-harm?
- Were there any surprises for you in the video?
