‘Given up hope of dying’: A child protection approach to deliberate self-harm in adolescents admitted to a paediatric ward

Authors: Annie Souter; Sebastian Kraemer

Source: Child & Family Social Work, Volume 9, Number 3, August 2004 , pp. 259-264(6)

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Abstract:

This paper describes an approach developed by a local authority social worker based in a paediatric department, working in close collaboration with consultant child and adolescent psychiatrists and paediatricians. The literature is informative on the significant psychosocial difficulties of young people who harm themselves deliberately, but there is little published work on the complexities of the actual multidisciplinary care given to these patients, the majority of whom are not actively suicidal by the time they are interviewed. The task is as much to intervene in the lives of young people at risk of harm or neglect as to prevent suicide.

Keywords: adolescent psychiatry; child protection; deliberate self-harm; overdose; paediatric liaison

Document Type: Research article

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2206.2004.00333.x

Affiliations: 1: Social Work Department, Whittington Hospital, London, UK

Publication date: 2004-08-01