Words: Adenike Derrick

Self-harm is a subject that is not often spoken about and consequently it has become something of a taboo. Despite this there are an estimated 170,000 people a year admitted to hospital through self-harm injuries; add to this huge figure those who are never admitted, and the enormity of the issue becomes apparent. March 1st marks Self Injury Awareness Day so STREETBRAND spoke to Caroline at Harmless, a charity that helps people with self-harm, to find out more about the valuable work that they do and address the issue in order to answer any questions that people may have about self-harm.  

SB: How did you start the role of talking to people about self-harm?
C: Harmless was started in October, we set up because through personal experience we realised there was a gap in services, and professional experience informed us of how best to develop a service to fill this gap. We provide support and information to people who self-harm, their friends, families and professionals. We also provide training and workshops to professionals and anyone in a supporting role, for example students that support other students. This is important because if we provide professionals with the knowledge to compassionately and competently support people who self-harm, we can have a huge impact on the health and recovery of individuals who self-harm. Often people who self-harm never come into contact with specialist mental heath services, but they will come into contact with friends and families, school, university and place work; and if they are met with awareness and understanding, then this can go a long way towards promoting health and wellbeing.