Enabling practitioners working with young people who self-harm

Foster, C; Birch, L; Allen, S; Rayner, GC

Abstract

Purpose: This paper outlines a United Kingdom based interdisciplinary workforce development project that had the aim of improving service delivery for children and young people who self-harm or are feeling suicidal.

Approach: This innovative practice-higher-education partnershiputilised an iterative consultation process to establish the local workforce need and then facilitated the systematic synthesis and presentation of evidence-based clinical guidelines in a practical format, for staff working directly with young people who self-harm in non-mental health settings.

Outcomes: The development, content and structure of this contextualised resourceis presented, along with emerging outcomes and learning from the team.It is anticipated that this may also be a useful strategy and resource for other teams in other areas and is intended to provide a template that can be adapted by other localities to meet the specific needs of their own workforce.

Practical Implications: The paper demonstrates how higher education-practice partnershipscan make clinical guidelines and research evidence in a field often thought of as highly specialist,accessible to all staff. It also shows a process of liaison and enhanced understanding across universal/specialist mental health service thresholds.


Originality/Value: This paperdemonstrates how collaborative partnerships can work to bridge the gap between evidence-based guidelinesand their implementation in practice, through innovative multi-agency initiatives.


Keywords: Self-harm, suicide, children, young people, interdisciplinary, workforce development, risk assessment, stakeholder engagement, mental health, adolescent
Paper Type: case study

Citation

Foster, C., Birch, L., Allen, S., & Rayner, G. (2015). Enabling practitioners working with young people who self-harm. Journal of Mental Health Training, Education and Practice, 10(4), 268-280. https://doi.org/10.1108/JMHTEP-05-2014-0011

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Oct 9, 2014
• Publication Date: Sep 14, 2015
• Deposit Date: Oct 20, 2015
• Publicly Available Date: Mar 3, 2017
• Journal: Journal of Mental Health Training, Education and Practice
• Print ISSN: 1755-6228
• Electronic ISSN: 2042-8707
• Publisher: Emerald
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 10
• Issue: 4
• Pages: 268-280
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/JMHTEP-05-2014-0011
• Publisher URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/JMHTEP-05-2014-0011
• Related Public URLs: http://www.emeraldgrouppublishing.com/jmhtep.htm
• Additional Information: Funders : Knowsley Clinical Comissioning Group;Knowsley Council; Projects : Supporting Children and Young People in Knowsley Who Self Harm or are Feeling Suicidal