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Utilisation and acceptability of formal and informal support for adolescents following self-harm before and during the first COVID-19 lockdown: results from a large-scale English schools survey

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 July 2023

R. Borschmann ,
G. Geulayov ,
K. Mansfield ,
P. A. Moran ,
K. Hawton  and
M. Fazel
R. Borschmann*
Affiliation:
Centre for Mental Health, University Of Melbourne, Carlton, Australia
G. Geulayov
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, University of Oxford, Oxford
K. Mansfield
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, University of Oxford, Oxford
P. A. Moran
Affiliation:
Department of Population Health Sciences, University of Bristol, Bristol, United Kingdom
K. Hawton
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, University of Oxford, Oxford
M. Fazel
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, University of Oxford, Oxford
*
*Corresponding author.

Abstract

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Introduction

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.

Objectives

We aimed to examine the utilisation and acceptability of formal, informal, and online support accessed by adolescents following self-harm before and during the pandemic.

Methods

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.

Disclosure of Interest

None Declared

Type
Abstract
Information
European Psychiatry , Volume 66 , Special Issue S1: Abstracts of the 31st European Congress of Psychiatry , March 2023 , pp. S744
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BY
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2023. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the European Psychiatric Association
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