Stigma towards non-suicidal self-harm: evaluating a brief educational intervention

Abstract

Background: health professionals' attitudes towards self-harming behaviour are predominantly negative. Research examining educational interventions to change negative attitudes is limited. Aims: this study aimed to provide an educational intervention for student nurses to change negative attitudes around self-harm. Methods: attitudes around self-harm and mental health in general were assessed through the Self-Harm Antipathy Scale and the Mental Health Attitude Scale. Fifty-five adult nursing students took part in the 45–minute intervention. This included facts and figures, celebrity stories and personal stories regarding self-harm, all intended to increase understanding. Findings: after the intervention, attitudes measured by the Self-Harm Antipathy Scale had improved significantly. Conclusion: patients who self-harm will without doubt continue to experience negative attitudes from health professionals. This study shows an educational intervention can change attitudes towards those who self-harm.

The attitudes and feelings of mental health nurses towards adolescents and young adults with nonsuicidal self-injuring behaviors

“…Those with higher education felt more powerless, uncertain and despairing compared to those with lower education, although there were no differences with regards to education in the attitudes the nurses described. These are both contrary to the findings of studies on attitudes, where the attitudes of the staff improve with education or qualification [ 18 , 20 – 23 , 37 ]. One possible reason could be that the nurses with higher education also felt more responsibility for the improvement of their patients, which in turn could produce reported emotions when working with chronically relapsing patients, similarly to reports by Thompson [ 32 ].…”

“…On the other hand, the time pressures and more severe crises on the acute wards and less support from the team members in the outpatient settings could make the exposed nurses more vulnerable. A similar observation was reported in studies using specific educational interventions and noted in the professional recommendations [ 2 , 18 , 20 – 22 , 25 , 32 ]. Namely, the mental health nurses themselves are the ones most commonly expressing the need for supervision [ 32 ], although the trainee counselors under supervision were somewhat disappointed by the experience [ 33 ].…”

“…The other possible explanation for the discrepant findings in the present study is that the more education in nursing in Slovenia as assessed by the present study (higher education meaning college, university or postgraduate education) does not mean that the nurses are better educated on the nature and modes of treatment of patients with mental disorders or specifically, NSSI. As already reported, only specific tailored education programs enabled the participants to feel more empathetic when treating patients who self-harmed [ 18 , 21 ].…”

“…Cleaver and coworkers also reported that the fact that patients are younger positively influenced the attitudes of A&E and ambulance staff towards adolescents who self-harmed [ 16 ]. Studies on adolescents who self-harmed showed that school staff and nursing students’ attitudes towards these students were more positive with more experience [ 17 , 18 ] although for the nurses working within forensic adolescent facilities and A&E staff without previous training in mental health, the duration of experience with patients with DSH negatively impacted their attitudes [ 19 , 20 ]. More previous education and specific educational interventions were shown to improve the attitudes of professionals working with clients who self-injured [ 18 , 20 – 23 ].…”

Give, and You Shall Receive: Mental Health Professionals and Stigma Towards Persons with Mental Illness

“…This might seem disheartening, but the identification of such educational gaps is the first step in allowing them to be addressed by means of appropriately incorporating anti-stigma training. Following exposure to the mental health curriculum, improved attitudes towards people with mental illness were found in medical students from UK [13] and South Africa [14], as well as nursing students from Turkey [15][16][17] There might truly be a role for the revision of curriculum pertaining to mental health, for anti-stigma programmes to be included as part of the courses. This might turn out to have a more profound educational impact than factual content found in textbooks and learnt by rote, about what constitutes mental illness and how these are treated.…”