Call for specific services to treat self-harm

SELF-HARM SHOULD not be treated in the same way as a suicide attempt, the author of a new study on self-injury in Ireland said yesterday.

Self-injury needs to be treated with harm-reduction rather than harm-prevention measures, said Dr Kay Inckle of Trinity College Dublin’s school of social work and social policy.

A suicide crisis response is completely inappropriate to treat self- harm, and blanket prevention measures can cause more damage than good, she added.

Self-injury is a coping mechanism and can be a way of releasing emotional pain or self-punishment, making a person feel more alive and connected, she said.

If self-harm is taken away and nothing else has changed for a person or their underlying feelings are not dealt with, it can leave them with no means of coping, she said.

Dr Inckle's book is a qualitative study of the experience and causes of self-injury in Ireland. Flesh Wounds? New Ways of Understanding Self-Injurywas published yesterday.

Self-harm statistics reveal those who require emergency treatment for self-harm but do not show the prevalence of self-injury, the study found. Some 12,000 official cases of self-harm were recorded last year. The most common types of self-injury are head-banging and wound interference, rather than self-cutting and overdoses which are treated in hospital, Dr Inckle said.

Specific treatment and support services for self-harm needed to be established in Ireland, she said. These could range from people practising self-care, reducing the risk of injury, peer support and help-lines to art therapy and housing support.