Self Harm (1 day)

This challenging subject is approached from psychological, psychiatric, and social perspectives. Participants will focus on the knowledge and skills that are needed when supporting someone who self-harms. Harm minimization is examined as is the human rights vs. duty of care debate. The final section of the day looks at case studies and provides participants with the opportunity to write a support plan for a service user that they are working with at present.

Learning objectives:

By the end of the course learners should understand:

• What is meant by ‘self harm’
• How self-harm is different to suicide attempts
• The connection between the two
• The different ways in which people self-harm?
• Who tends to self harm
• The traditional response to self harming
• The contemporary approach to supporting people who self harm
• The need to identify and how to identify risks
• How to manage risks
• What is meant by risk minimising
• How to planning for a crisis
• The legal position
• The organisation’s policy
• The tension between upholding people’s right to self harm and staff responsibility
• The need for multi-disciplinary working
• The need for staff Supervision

Training methods:

• Tutor presentations
• OHP/PowerPoint
• Group work
• Case studies
• Chalk & Talk
• Handouts

CP243/6.9