Hospital admissions for children who are
self-harming have more than doubled in six years.
The true number of children ending up in hospital after
self-harming is likely to be even higher.
Out of the 11,000 children surveyed, one in six reported
self-harming at 14.
The report looks at the reasons behind the unhappiness which increases the risk of children
self-harming.
One young person told the charity: "I felt like
self-harming was what I wanted to do and had to do as there was nothing else I could do.
How you react is important too: "Young people are often reluctant to tell people they're
self-harming as they fear adults' reactions," Hayley said.
Although it appears that previous suicide attempts are the most robust risk factor for eventually completed suicide,
self-harming behaviors have also been shown to be a strong predictor of suicide in people with SMI, especially women (Haw, Hawton, Sutton, Sinclair, & Deeks, 2005; Hawton, Zahl, & Weatherall, 2003).
A quarter of 14-15 year-old girls in the study said they had thoughts about
self-harming and 15 per cent had self-harmed in the previous 12 months, Ms Hollonds said.
SELF-HARMING is when a young person chooses to inflict pain on themselves in some way.
The survey was composed of around 6,000 participants and reveals many children are
self-harming more than once a month.
Janet Boden, ChildLine's service manager in Liverpool, said: "Although
self-harming is not a new problem, sharing images of self-harm on social media sites is a worrying new development."
Most users went to the forums for empathy or to discuss safety issues rather than talk about how they could reduce their
self-harming behaviour.
