Self-Harm: Exploring Causes, Treatments, and Australian Statistics

This report delves into the multifaceted issue of self-harm, focusing on the Australian context. It begins with an introduction defining self-harm, also known as deliberate self-injury or para-suicide, highlighting common methods like cutting and self-poisoning, and emphasizing the importance of taking such behaviors seriously. The report presents relevant statistics from the Australian Bureau of Statistics, including prevalence rates among different age groups and hospitalization data. It then explores the rationale behind self-harm, explaining that individuals often use it to cope with painful feelings such as depression, anger, and self-hatred, and examines factors that can increase self-harm behavior, such as sudden family crises, mental health issues, and trauma. The report concludes by outlining treatment interventions, including psychiatric treatment, psychological counseling, medical treatment for injuries, harm minimization techniques, and support systems like family and friends, referencing several recent studies and journals.

Self Harm

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
Statistics (Australian Bureau of Statistics)......................................................................................3
What is self harm.............................................................................................................................3
Rationale behind self harm..............................................................................................................4
Treatment for self harm...................................................................................................................4
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................6

INTRODUCTION
Self is also known as deliberate self injury or para-suicide. The most common methods
are cutting and self poisoning among the young people (Buckley and et.al., 2015). There are
other methods like burning, scratching, hanging and interfering with wound healing. Usually,
self harms should be taken seriously even though they are not intended to be fatal. Self harm is a
criminal offence according to Crimes Act 1958.
STATISTICS (AUSTRALIAN BUREAU OF STATISTICS)
 Self harm has been the 7th leading contributor to disease among people in Australia.
 Less than 13% of the people who harm themselves are admitted in the hospitals (Hawton
and et.al., 2015).
 8% of young people between the ages of 15-24 years are involved in self harm in any 12
month period.
 Suicides are done mostly by males while self harm by females (Hiles and et.al., 2015).
Lifetime prevalence rates:
Age group Females (In percentage) Males (In percentage)
15-19 17 12
20-24 24 18
Mean age of self harm in
Australia
17 years (More common in females)
Hospitalization for self harm
(2010-11)
26,000 cases
WHAT IS SELF HARM
Self harm is a behaviour in which a person deliberately injures himself in order to cope up
with painful feelings. It includes anger, depression, despair, self hatred, etc. (Ougrin and et.al.,
2015). It usually includes burning, cutting, hitting, binge eating and starvation. It can also
include abuse of alcohol or drugs and even overdosing on prescribed medicines. Most of the
people who do self harm conceal their injuries. For example, wearing long sleeves or covering

their wounds etc. They never use medical help for treating their injuries (Zubrick and et.al.,
2015). These people are not trying to kill themselves but they are looking for a way to deal with
their problems and difficulties. Factors that can increase self harm behaviour of people
 Sudden crisis in family like death, relationship breakdown, abuse and violence.
 Physical disability
 Depression or any other mental issue (Gowing and et.al., 2015).
 Trauma
 Anxiety or emotional imbalance
RATIONALE BEHIND SELF HARM
It depicts that a person needs medical help to control his behaviour. They are trying to
replace emotional pain with physical pain (Ougrin and et.al., 2015). Self harm can induce feeling
of suicide in people. These people are more prone to suicide than general population. It can
become an addictive behaviour and it depicts on the level of person's mental illness.
Mani reasons behind self harm are:
 Drastic change in mood
 People hurt themselves to cope up with stress, relationship problems, depression, abuse
etc (Buckley and et.al., 2015).
 It is an attempt to punish themselves
 Inability to manage emotions
 Social withdrawal: No communication with friends and family (Buckley and et.al., 2015).
 Self hatred and emotional numbness
 They feel pain is better than any other thing.
TREATMENT FOR SELF HARM
National Suicide Prevention Strategy (NSPS) helps in the promotion, prevention and it also
provides intervention to people (Gowing and et.al., 2015).
 Psychiatric treatment
 Psychological counselling and intervention
 Medical treatment for medical injuries
 Use of harm minimization techniques to control behaviour (Hiles and et.al., 2015).
 Keeping first aid equipments at home

 Learning effective coping methods
 Support from friends, family and doctors
 Stress management
 Relaxation therapy, meditation and yoga (Zubrick and et.al., 2015).
 Avoiding self harm and developing new habits to control the emotions.
SUMMARY
Self harm involves intentionally causing injury to one. Australian Bureau of Statistics has
gathered the data in Australia which reflects that 26,000 people were admitted in the hospital due
to self harm. It is caused by many reasons like sudden crisis in family like death, relationship
breakdown, abuse, physical disability, depression, trauma or any other mental issue. These
people do self harm to relieve themselves from their problems or to punish themselves. It has
been found that these people are more prone to suicide than general population. It should be
taken seriously even though these people are not trying to kill themselves. There can be many
ways to prevent this issue like therapy, psychological counselling, mediation, controlling
emotions and harm minimization techniques. It can be helpful in reducing the number of self
harm people in society.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Buckley, N. A. and et.al., (2015). A prospective cohort study of trends in self-poisoning,
Newcastle, Australia, 1987-2012: plus ca change, plus c'est la meme chose. The Medical
journal of Australia. 202(8). pp.438-442.
Gowing, C. J. and et.al., (2015). Ten years of trauma in the ‘top end’of the Northern Territory,
Australia: A retrospective analysis. International emergency nursing. 23(1). pp.17-21.
Hawton, K. and et.al., (2015). Pharmacological interventions for self-harm in adults. Cochrane
Database of Systematic Reviews. 7.
Hiles, S. and et.al., (2015). General hospital-treated self-poisoning in England and Australia:
Comparison of presentation rates, clinical characteristics and aftercare based on sentinel
unit data. Journal of psychosomatic research. 78(4). pp.356-362.
Ougrin, D. and et.al., (2015). Therapeutic interventions for suicide attempts and self-harm in
adolescents: systematic review and meta-analysis. Journal of the American Academy of
Child & Adolescent Psychiatry. 54(2). pp.97-107.
Zubrick, S. R. and et.al., (2015). Self-harm: prevalence estimates from the second Australian
Child and Adolescent Survey of Mental Health and Wellbeing. Australian and New
Zealand journal of psychiatry. p.0004867415617837.