26th April 2006 – The Independent’s feature on Self-Injury
Today, there were two articles in “The Independent” about self-injury (full-page spread). As I say repeatedly, it is always good to see awareness being raised through the media, even though it can at times be misleading.
The feature was entitled “Children self-harm aged nine, warn nurses”: http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/health_medical/article360212.ece
The first section highlights the growing number of young people who are self-injuring, using other forms of self-harm (drinking, eating disorders etc), but also engaging in suicidal behaviour. I don’t feel that this article makes a clear distinction between these behaviours, and doesn’t indicate that self-injury is a very distinct behaviour in its own right. The article is written with the intent to shock! Self-injury in children aged 9 (or younger) is not a new phenomenon, and I feel that the article implies that it is something which has only been occurring recently.
The most important part of the article is that it highlights the lack of services available to young people with mental health problems. Obviously something needs to be done about this.
The pilot project at St George’s psychiatric hospital in Stafford is mentioned (we have already talked about this on the LifeSIGNS Blog), but I don’t necessarily feel that this is relevant to a discussion of young people and self-injury – as the article says, there are no current plans to extend this to children.
“Self harm: ‘Teachers know it’s going on, but they’re scared’” is the second part of the feature and can be found at: http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/health_medical/article360213.ece
This focuses on an individual’s experience with self-injury and negative reactions which she has received from people (professionals in particular). As so many stories of self-injury do, this one serves to show how there is still so much misunderstanding surrounding self-injury.
As with similar articles in the press I was disappointed that there was no mention of where people should go to get help for their self-injury. I will be writing a letter to “The Independent” in response.
