Mental health service plans to take part in self-harming study (From Messenger Newspapers)

Mental health service plans to take part in self-harming study

12:00pm Thursday 8th January 2009 in News

TRAFFORD’S mental health service (CAMHS) is planning to take part in a £4.5m national study to help young people who are self-harming.

The seven-year study will aim to establish whether family therapy is effective in preventing young people from continuing to self-harm.

It is estimated that 10 to 15 per cent of young people in the UK have self-harmed, deliberately hurting or injuring themselves.

The ‘Self-Harm Intervention, Family Therapy’ (SHIFT) trial will involve around 800 young people, aged 11 to 17, and their families.

It will be one of the largest and most comprehensive studies of its kind of youngsters who have self-harmed more than once and needed hospital admission for their injuries, although those diagnosed with severe depression or other serious mental illness will not be asked to take part. The study is being funded by the National Institute for Health Research Health Technology Assessment (NIHR HTA) programme and led by the University of Leeds and NHS Leeds. Sixteen other organisations including Trafford CAMHS are planning to collaborate on the study by recruiting young people to the trial and delivering family therapy sessions in their areas.

Dr Dinah Jayson, a consultant child and adolescent psychiatrist at Trafford Healthcare NHS Trust, will be leading the study in Trafford.

She said: “We know there is a link between self-harm and difficulties in family relationships and communication but we just don’t know enough about how best to help people overcome their reasons for self-harming.

"This large-scale study will enable us to explore whether family therapy can help young people and their families to identify why they self-harm and how to reduce episodes of self-harm in the future.”

Existing treatment programmes for young people vary widely across the country and include different forms of counselling, cognitive behavioural therapy and problem-solving therapies but there is currently not enough evidence to demonstrate which is the most effective.