TRIGGER WARNING: Please remember that this podcast explores themes across the subject of self-harm.
In the event you or an individual is battling their psychological well being, please search help by accessing the helplines and assets supplied by the NHS web site. For these outdoors the UK please use an web search to search out an organisation that may supply direct help.
On this ‘Insights from the OxWell Pupil Survey’ episode, Dr. Galit Geulayov and Dr. Rohan Borschmann touch upon the findings from the OxWell survey concerning self-harm behaviours in addition to casual and formal help for adolescents who self-harm.
The ‘Insights from the OxWell Pupil Survey‘ collection is a brand new mini-in dialog collection that can discover the OxWell examine and the influence of its findings for folks, lecturers, policymakers and psychological well being professionals.
Dialogue factors embrace:
- What was measured in relation to self-harm within the OxWell scholar survey.
- Self-harm and loneliness.
- Gender and age variations in self-harm behaviours.
- Sorts of help accessed by adolescents following self-harm.
- Casual and formal help for adolescents who self-harm.
- Potential implications of the findings and plans for the subsequent OxWell waves concerning self-harm behaviours in adolescents.
OxWell is a large-scale scholar survey designed to measure the wellbeing of youngsters and younger individuals. It seems to be at psychological wellbeing, anxiousness, indicators of vulnerability akin to bullying and loneliness, faculty expertise, entry to providers, security on-line and lots of extra areas. It’s a joint effort between colleges, younger individuals, the NHS, native authorities and the OxWell analysis workforce on the College of Oxford’s Division of Psychiatry.
Subscribe to ACAMH psychological well being podcasts in your most well-liked streaming platform. Simply seek for ACAMH on; SoundCloud, Spotify, CastBox, Deezer, Google Podcasts, Podcastaddict, JioSaavn, Pay attention notes, Radio Public, and Radio.com (not obtainable within the EU). Plus we’re on Apple Podcasts go to the hyperlink or click on on the icon, or scan the QR code.
TRIGGER WARNING: Please remember that this podcast explores themes across the subject of self-harm.
Want help?
For these based mostly within the UK, if you happen to want help please use these helplines as supplied by NHS web site. For these outdoors the UK please use an web search to search out an organisation that may supply direct help. Don’t endure in silence, attain out.
- Samaritans: Confidential help for individuals experiencing emotions of misery or despair.
Telephone: 116 123 (free 24-hour helpline). - PAPYRUS: Younger suicide prevention society.
Telephone: HOPELINE247 0800 068 4141 (24-hours each day, three hundred and sixty five days of the 12 months).
Textual content: 07860039967 - CALM is the Marketing campaign Towards Residing Miserably, for males aged 15 to 35.
Telephone: 0800 585858 (Helplines are open 17:00pm-midnight, three hundred and sixty five days a 12 months. Webchat can also be obtainable.)
Different assets
- Episode 1 – ‘Networks of Care: Insights from the OxWell Pupil Survey’, with Professor Mina Fazel, Dr. Emma Soneson, and Dr. Simon White
- Episode 2 – ‘Friendships and Psychological Well being: Insights from the OxWell Pupil Survey’, with Tanya Manchanda
- Episode 3 – ‘On-line Behaviours and the Influence on Psychological Well being: Insights from the OxWell Pupil Survey’, with Dr. Simona Skripkauskaite and Dr. Holly Bear
Dr. Galit Geulayov is a psychological well being epidemiologist researching self-harm and suicide throughout the life course. With companions in Australia and within the UK, Galit investigates the influence of parental self-harm on offspring psychosocial and cognitive outcomes in formative years. Galit can also be creating a machine studying based mostly software for figuring out self-harm in Digital Well being Information.
Galit is the self-harm analysis lead within the OxWell Faculty and, inside this examine, Galit is exploring help-seeking behaviour following self-harm, traits in self-harm over time and self-harm in main faculty youngsters.
Beforehand, Galit acted as the info curator of the Multicentre Examine Self-harm in England and knowledge analyst. This examine includes amassing data on people who current to hospitals following self-harm. Galit studied traits in self-harm over time and the connection between socio-economic and scientific traits with scientific care and mortality. (Bio and picture from Division of Psychiatry, College of Oxford).
Prof. Rohan Borschmann is a psychologist and visiting tutorial from the Centre for Psychological Well being and Group Wellbeing on the College of Melbourne, Australia. Because the fast past-president of the Australian Affiliation for Adolescent Well being, a lot of Rohan’s work focuses on the psychological well being of adolescents and younger adults, with a specific curiosity in self-harm and suicide prevention. He has been based mostly within the Division of Psychiatry on the College of Oxford since 2022, utilizing OxWell knowledge to look at the patterns and correlates of self-harm in secondary faculty college students.
Transcript
[00:00:01.280] Clara Faria: Hiya, welcome to the Insights from the OxWell Pupil Survey collection for the Affiliation for Little one and Adolescent Psychological Well being, or ACAMH for brief. It is a new mini In Dialog collection that can discover the OxWell Examine and the influence of its findings for folks, Academics, policymakers and psychological well being professionals. I’m Clara Faria. I’m ACAMH Younger Individual Ambassador, and right this moment, I’ve the pleasure of interviewing Dr. Galit Geulayov and Professor Rohan Borschmann, each Senior Researchers on the OxWell Pupil Survey.
Led by Professor Mina Fazel, OxWell is a large-scale scholar survey designed to measure the wellbeing of youngsters and younger individuals. The survey examines psychological well being, wellbeing, anxiousness, indicators of vulnerability, akin to worrying and loneliness, faculty expertise, entry to providers, security on-line and lots of extra areas. It’s a joint effort between colleges, younger individuals, the NHS, native authorities and the OxWell Analysis Crew inside the College of Oxford’s Division of Psychiatry.
Earlier than we begin, please remember that this episode can be specializing in the OxWell findings on self-harm behaviours amongst youngsters and younger individuals. In the event you, or individuals , have been affected by this, please remember some might discover this content material triggering. We encourage you to apply self-care.
In the event you’re a fan of our In Dialog collection, please subscribe in your most well-liked streaming platform, tell us how we did, with a ranking or assessment, and share with mates and colleagues.
After that lengthy introduction, welcome, Galit and Rohan. It’s actually beautiful to see you each once more. Are you able to please begin with a brief intro, giving an summary of what you do?
[00:01:52.850] Dr. Galit Geulayov: Thanks for having us, Clara. I’m Galit Geulayov. I’m a Researcher on the College of Oxford. My work covers a variety of points associated to self-harm in younger individuals, and I’m additionally the Oxford Self-Hurt Analysis Lead.
[00:02:10.729] Professor Rohan Borschmann: Thanks, Galit and thanks, Clara, for having us on right this moment. My title is Rohan Borschmann. I’m a Psychologist and a Visiting Professor from the College of Melbourne, in Australia. I’m at present based mostly within the Division of Psychiatry right here in Oxford and a whole lot of my work focuses on adolescent psychological well being, with a specific curiosity in self-harm and suicide prevention.
[00:02:31.930] Clara Faria: Thanks a lot for these introductions, and once more, it’s an enormous pleasure to have you ever right here to speak about such an necessary subject. Properly, to our first query, then. Adolescents’ loneliness and self-harm have been matters of dialogue and concern amongst younger individuals, mother and father and colleges in recent times. Are you able to inform us a bit extra about what you measured in relation to self-harm within the OxWell Pupil Survey? What did you discover?
[00:02:57.660] Dr. Galit Geulayov: So, simply to present it some context. OxWell is a repeated survey and this wave of OxWell came about in 2020. So, that was through the first UK COVID-19 lockdown, and our examine included secondary faculty college students who had been 12 to 18-years-old on the time of the survey. Simply after we speak about self-harm, we truly consult with an act whereby an individual deliberately damages or injures their physique indirectly, and that is no matter why they do it.
In OxWell 2020, we requested college students if that they had self-harmed within the 12 months earlier than the survey and in addition, whether or not this occurred throughout lockdown. And what we discovered was that nearly 10% of scholars reported that they self-harmed within the 12 months earlier than the survey, 7% reported that they self-harmed throughout lockdown.
[00:03:57.750] Clara Faria: And did you ask them how they felt about being requested about self-harm?
[00:04:03.000] Dr. Galit Geulayov: So, this is a vital query. Some individuals fear that speaking to younger individuals about self-harm may improve their misery or “put concepts of their head.” That is an expression that I heard a number of instances earlier than. And we didn’t ask this on this survey, however I ought to stress that college students had been knowledgeable that they didn’t must reply any a part of the survey in the event that they didn’t want to take action.
Now, it’s price mentioning that different research, which assess this situation, present that asking younger individuals about self-harm doesn’t improve their misery or self-harm ideas or behaviour, which is a typical concern.
[00:04:47.030] Clara Faria: Thanks for clarifying such an necessary level, Galit. And plenty of younger individuals reported worsening of psychological well being signs through the COVID pandemic, and I do know you printed the paper about “Self-Hurt and Loneliness” through the UK’s first lockdown. Are you able to inform us a bit extra concerning the paper’s fundamental findings?
[00:05:05.850] Dr. Galit Geulayov: Yeah. So, along with questions on self-harm, we requested the scholars how lonely they felt, usually, but additionally, whether or not they felt kind of lonely than earlier than lockdown. About 17% of scholars reported that they typically felt lonely. Nearly 8% mentioned that they felt a lot lonelier than earlier than lockdown.
Now, curiously, about 10% of younger individuals felt that they felt a lot much less lonely than earlier than lockdown. So, you possibly can see that lockdown didn’t have the identical impact on everybody, and we’ve got – our colleagues truly printed an entire paper on this subject of those college students who truly had been doing higher general in that first lockdown within the UK.
We additionally discovered that self-harm throughout lockdown was extra widespread in those that skilled extra intense loneliness, and that feeling a lot lonelier than earlier than lockdown was associated to self-harm throughout lockdown. So, in different phrases, exacerbation in loneliness throughout lockdown was associated to self-harm throughout lockdown.
Now, this doesn’t imply that loneliness causes self-harm. To handle this kind of query, we would wish to make use of a special examine design. So, for instance, we might need to use a design that – by which we measure loneliness and self-harm over time, somewhat than in a single cut-off date.
[00:06:46.919] Clara Faria: And speaking a bit extra about your evaluation, did you discover any variations throughout age and gender? For instance, is self-harm extra prevalent amongst younger ladies? What about youths that identifies as gender non-binary?
[00:07:01.470] Dr. Galit Geulayov: So, we did. We discovered that self-harm was extra widespread in ladies than in boys. So, for instance, 10% of women reported self-harm throughout lockdown in comparison with 3% of boys. However I ought to point out that such gender ratio is kind of widespread on this age group, and in addition, ladies in our survey reported increased charges of loneliness. So, for instance, 10% of women reported that they felt a lot lonelier than earlier than lockdown, and that is in contrast with 5% of boys.
Sadly, we didn’t ask college students about gender id on this wave of OxWell, however we addressed this situation in a later wave of the OxWell Examine.
[00:07:52.379] Clara Faria: And, extra lately, you each printed the paper with some OxWell colleagues, which examined the several types of help accessed by adolescents following self-harm. What sort of help did younger individuals report discovering most useful?
[00:08:06.320] Professor Rohan Borschmann: So, we requested the college college students whether or not they had accessed an entire vary of several types of help in relation to their self-harm, and we divided some of these help into three fundamental teams. So, first, there was formal help. This included issues like seeing their GP or talking with a Social Employee or a Psychiatrist, Psychologist or different psychological well being employee about their self-harm.
Second, there have been casual sources of help. This was, basically, their family and friends members, so maybe their mother or father or a sibling, or somebody of their friendship group, and eventually, there have been the web or phone-based sources of help, and this included issues like phone helplines or on-line boards and web sites.
So, by way of the place the adolescents reported searching for essentially the most assist, it was truly their family and friends members. Particularly, one in three adolescents, who had self-harmed, reported searching for assist from a pal and one in 4 went to a mother or father for assist. However a a lot smaller proportion reported searching for assist from the formal scientific providers, with solely seven to 12% reporting accessing such providers. And even much less generally reported had been the web and phone-based providers, which solely 4 to eight% of adolescents who had self-harmed reported accessing these.
Now, by way of their perceived helpfulness, it, principally, mirrored the place that they had sought assist from. So, family and friends members had been reported as being essentially the most useful, adopted by the scientific providers and eventually, adopted by the web sort providers.
[00:09:38.200] Clara Faria: And Rohan, when wanting on the knowledge concerning formal and casual help for adolescents with a historical past of self-harm, did something shock you? Have been there any findings that weren’t consistent with your preliminary speculation?
[00:09:51.269] Professor Rohan Borschmann: Yeah, positively. I used to be fairly shocked that the web and phone-based sources of help had been utilized by so few younger individuals. And I say that as a result of, , these sources of help are freely obtainable, they’re typically nameless, they don’t value something and all it’s good to entry them is an web connection, which is basically like oxygen to highschool college students, proper, they usually can’t reside with out it. So, that shocked me, and in addition, I suppose, given the massive quantity of presidency funding that’s at present being spent on on-line assist providers, it does appear, from our knowledge, that younger persons are merely not utilizing them fairly often.
[00:10:27.470] Clara Faria: And that leads, truly, to our subsequent query. I used to be going to ask, what are you able to say concerning the potential implications of your findings?
[00:10:35.390] Professor Rohan Borschmann: Positive. Really, one fairly necessary discovering that I didn’t point out earlier by way of which sources of help the scholars reported searching for is that nearly two in 5 adolescents who had self-harmed reported that they hadn’t truly accessed any sort of help. So, they’d actually spoken to no one about it, which is, clearly, very removed from ideally suited, and that was 38% of people that had self-harmed. After which, maybe not surprisingly, greater than half of those younger individuals, those who hadn’t reached out for any help, additionally reported that they hadn’t discovered this very useful. So, conserving it to themselves was sometimes not seen as a optimistic or useful plan of action.
When it comes to implications, to reply your query, one of many issues that we actually must discover now with younger individuals is precisely why the web providers and the scientific providers had been accessed so hardly ever, and in addition, why they’re not seen as being actually overly useful. As a result of I believe it’s solely by talking with younger individuals themselves about their priorities and their preferences that we’ll be capable of perceive what they’re after after which, to design responsive well being providers to work with the rising variety of children who’re turning to self-harm as a coping mechanism.
[00:11:45.450] Clara Faria: Positively, and Galit, would you wish to remark concerning the implications for folks and for friends?
[00:11:50.769] Dr. Galit Geulayov: Yeah, so, we noticed right here, and in addition in different research, that many younger individuals who self-harm flip to household and mates for help. So, we have to know extra concerning the experiences of those casual help suppliers. We’d need to higher perceive the influence of help provision for household and mates and in addition, their potential help wants.
[00:12:16.880] Clara Faria: Properly, thanks a lot on your time, Galit and Rohan, and trying to the longer term, might you share a bit about your plans for the subsequent OxWell waves concerning self-harm behaviours in adolescents?
[00:12:28.320] Dr. Galit Geulayov: Thanks, Clara. We’re at present engaged on quite a few research. In a single examine, we’re wanting on the adjustments within the prevalence of self-harm over time, utilizing the a number of waves of OxWell, and we’ve got 4 such waves, from 2019 all the best way to 2023. We additionally examine self-harm in main faculty youngsters, which is a gaggle that has been missed fairly often within the context of self-harm. And in one other examine, we examined the prevalence of publicity to self-harm associated content material on-line and the way this could be associated to self-harm behaviour.
[00:13:12.200] Professor Rohan Borschmann: Thanks, Galit. Additionally, we’re planning to look at what we’re calling the college expertise of adolescents who self-harm, and that can contain taking fairly a deep dive into the OxWell knowledge to have a look at the ways in which children with a historical past of self-harm by no means get the college expertise in comparison with their friends who don’t self-harm. And I suppose this may embrace areas akin to how a lot they really feel a way of belonging to the college neighborhood and their sense of company within the faculty, their friendship circles and experiences of bullying, and in addition, any experiences of detention or exclusion, and even how protected they really feel at college, which is kind of necessary. So, there’s loads to discover there, however I believe we’re prone to discover some very fascinating variations.
[00:13:54.120] Clara Faria: I’m very curious to see these findings when they’re out. Thanks a lot on your time, as soon as once more, and for extra particulars on Dr. Galit Geulayov and Professor Rohan Borschmann, please go to the OxWell and ACAMH web sites, www.acamh.org and oxwell.org. Additionally comply with us on our Twitter @ACAMH. ACAMH is spelt A-C-A-M-H. You may take heed to different podcasts within the Insights from the OxWell Pupil Surveys collection, together with episodes on friendship, self-harm, sleep and extra. And don’t neglect to comply with us in your most well-liked streaming platform, tell us if you happen to benefit from the podcast, with a ranking or assessment, and do share with mates and colleagues. We’ve got additionally linked assets for younger individuals or caring of younger individuals who have skilled self-harm in our touchdown web page, or you possibly can entry these assets beneath the podcast.
