Travellers and young people among those most at risk of self-harming

Self-harm in the Traveller community is among some of the key topics to be explored at St Patrick’s Mental Health Services and Pieta’s annual Self-Harm Awareness Conference, taking place today, 28 February, in St Patrick’s University Hospital, Dublin 8.

Evidence shows that members of minority groups, such as the Traveller community, are more vulnerable to self-harming behaviours. In the last six months, Traveller representatives told the Oireachtas of a mental health crisis and unprecedented rates of self-harm within the community.

Now in its fifth year, the Self-Harm Awareness Conference is a joint collaboration between St Patrick’s Mental Health Services and Pieta that aims to equip education providers, healthcare professionals and parents, family members and carers with practical skills and advice for managing presentations of self-harm. 

This year’s conference focuses on responding to high-risk groups such as adolescents and members of the Travelling community. Topics to be explored include the therapeutic use of metaphor when treating young people who self-harm, the assessment and management of patients presenting to emergency departments following self-harm and actions needed to improve mental health within the Travelling community.

The conference also gives space to exploring the individual perspective of living with, and treating, self-harming behaviours, with award-winning author David Rudden discussing his personal experience of self-harm and journey to recovery on the day.

Speaking about the need for more research and understanding of self-harm in the Travelling community, Alan Kavanagh, Men’s Mental Health Outreach Worker with the Tallaght Travellers Community Development Project, said: “Barriers such as social exclusion, racism, discrimination, and poverty are known to contribute to trauma and mental health difficulties, which can underlie behaviours such as self-harm. While much research exists on the obstacles faced, and trauma transmitted, in various indigenous groups around the world, such analysis is non-existent from a Traveller perspective. It is vital that there is an understanding of what factors have caused trauma in the Traveller community in order to provide effective, culturally-specific treatment and reduce the high prevalence of behaviours such as self-harm.”

Discussing self-harm in high-risk groups, Dr Caroline Clements, Project Manager of the Manchester Self-Harm Project, noted: “The National Strategy for Preventing Suicide in England emphasises that suicide risk is high in particular groups such as middle-aged men, people in the care of mental health services, people in contact with the criminal justice system, as well as people with a history of self-harm. It is important to invest in research into self-harm so that we can understand why some groups, such as young women and people in midlife, are presenting to hospital for self-harm more often and how we can provide appropriate responses, now and into the future.”