Up to one in 12 young people in the UK have self-harmed and more than 24,000 teenagers are admitted to hospital each year after deliberately hurting themselves, found the report. Truth Hurts is the result of a two-year study by the National Inquiry into Self-harm among Young People, a joint initiative between the Camelot Foundation and the Mental Health Foundation.
It claims health, education and social care professionals are not receiving the training they need to support young self-harmers and calls on the Government to launch a national campaign to raise awareness of the issue.
Susan Elizabeth, director of the Camelot Foundation, said:
"Youth professionals need to understand that self-harm is an expression of underlying problems. They need to give young people space to talk."
Truth Hurts found that a number of factors can cause a young person to resort to self-harm, including bullying, anxiety about academic performance and sexual, physical or emotional abuse. Researchers said that young people who self-harmed wanted counselling, drop-in centres and self-help groups to be made more readily available.
www.selfharmuk.org
www.mentalhealth.org.uk
See Feature, p14.
