Exploring help-seeking processes for young people who self-harm.
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Exploring the help-seeking processes, barriers and facilitators for young people who deliberately self-harm.
IRAS ID
134675
Contact name
Rebekah Lwin
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of Edinburgh
Research summary
The understanding of how and why adolescents seek help for a mental health difficulty is integral to the development and delivery of effective mental health services. Help-seeking behaviour is the process in which people seek help for a difficulty. Studies exploring help-seeking behaviour have identified a number of factors that either support young people to seek help or prevent young people from seeking help. Where there has been a gap in research is in understanding this from the perspective of the adolescent.
This study will explore help-seeking behaviours and the factors that supported young people (aged 16-18) or prevented young people for seeking help for deliberate self-harm. This study will employ qualitative methodology and use one to one interviews to explore adolescent perceptions of their help-seeking behaviour and experience in their own words.
Interviews will be conducted with adolescents who have experience of seeking help for deliberate self harm and who are receiving or have received support from child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS).
Once interviews have been conducted they will be analysed to identify common themes across the interviews to understand young people’s experiences of seeking help for deliberate self-harm.REC name
North West - Haydock Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
13/NW/0682
Date of REC Opinion
11 Sep 2013
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion