Self harm in adolescents - Essay Example

?Self-harm in Adolescent Inserts His/Her Inserts Grade Inserts (07 12, Outline Introduction 2. Analyzing the ethical complexities of assessing and managing self-harm 3. Therapeutic interventions and strategies used in the management of self-harm in adolescent 4. Comparison of relevant psychological perspectives applied to the understanding of self-harm in adolescent 5. An evaluation of uses and limitations of pre-existing risk assessment tools 6. An exploration of own attitudes and beliefs and recognition of how of it may affect practice 7. Conclusion Self-harm in adolescence. 1. Introduction. The adolescents have challenges as they grow. They struggle to overcome stress that is accumulated from school, peer groups and family. Some result in self-harm. Self-harm involves hurting oneself by burning, taking unsafe substances, cutting the body, pulling the hair and piercing the body. They either take drugs or inflict wounds using sharp objects like razor especially on the legs or arms. The aim of self-harm is get relief from the emotional distress. Most of them inflict the wound or take drugs in secrecy. Those interacting with the adolescents learn about self-harm after a while when they see cuts, burns and healing wounds. This essay will discuss ethics, therapeutic interventions, perspectives, risk assessment and beliefs in self-harm. 2. Analyzing the ethical complexities of assessing and managing self-harm. It is necessary to understand the ethical considerations when dealing with an adolescent who intends or is engaging in self injury. There are ethical issues concerning the student. The student should be assured of confidentiality on the issues they discuss with the counselor or nurse. Additionally, there are ethical concerns on parent’s responsibility and the schools responsibility. The counselor should maintain high standards of professionalism. It is important that the counselor is capable of detecting the symptoms of self-injury early. Majority of adolescents who engage in the self injurious acts do so when they are freshmen or when experiencing great emotional challenges. They ensure that they cannot be discovered and might continue for long if they do not get assisted (Motz, 2009). The school authorities and parents should avail the resources necessary to encourage safety. As people begin to assist the self injurious adolescent, it is necessary to be aware of the ethical complications. Information about the self injurious adolescent should remain confidential, unless the information would prevent danger from the adolescent from causing further harm to themselves or others. Self injurious behavior should be reported even when the adolescent is not exposed to danger, but needs assistance from professionals or parents. However, self injurious behavior should not be considered as an indicator of suicidal intention. For some adolescents, injuring self relieves their tension and helps them deal with stress. Consulting with legal authorities as well as the school administration on the problem is necessary. An extensive and intensive assessment of situation is necessary. This includes; establishing the nature and frequency of the self inflicted harm. There is need to consult if the adolescent is hurting and needs care. If they are not cooperating and increase the frequency of hurting self, consulting the professional could be necessary to enable them cope with their challenges. The legal authorities may be involved in establishing the nature of injury, if it is caused by the adolescent or by another person. Medical intervention may be necessary. The adolescent could be having wounds or infection that needs treatment. Understand the emotions that cause the adolescent to hurt self and possible motivation for their actions. Enquire if they inflict their wounds or harm when alone or when with others. Be sure to know if they share objects of injury with others. Investigate what triggers the strong emotions. Moreover, find out who knows about the injury. Get their current situation and the context that causes them to perform self injury in detail. Asses if the adolescent has intentions for suicide if they could be in danger. Sharing information with others weather in a conversation or in a written form is unethical (Canadian Psychological association, 2000) Counselors have a responsibility to parents as well as the school. They are responsible for determining appropriate time to give the information to parents and to the school. They can asses if the adolescent has adequate skills to overcome the issues causing them injure self. They can teach them how to manage anger and share this role with the parent where appropriate. Guest parents and professionals can be invited to talk to adolescents about common challenges. They can collaborate with other professionals or spiritual leaders if need be. They may consider getting medical help for injuries or rehabilitation in the case of alcohol and drug abuse. Alternative means of dealing the self injury should be adjusted according to individual needs as Kress (2006, p. 23) mentions. 3. Therapeutic interventions and strategies used in the management of self-harm in adolescent. To be able to assist harm themselves, it is important to implement appropriate intervention that suits their needs. The following is a range of therapeutic interventions and strategies that can be used in the management of self-harm in adolescents. Establishing a therapeutic relationship could assist in managing self-harm. Ousey and Ousey (2010, p. 38) mention that establishing a relationship that encourage emotional support and give affection is important. This will facilitate the adolescent to be able to communicate. When an adolescent hurts themselves it could be a way of communicating where they call for attention. When a good relationship is created they can learn to express themselves freely. It is imperative to avoid words that would be accusative or words that label them as bad. Another strategy is the containment awareness and engagement therapy. It can be of help to the person receiving help and the person giving help. It provides the best guidelines and professional assistance on the best approach to follow on individual cases. It empowers the adolescent to see their strengths and be aware of the dangers they are exposed to when hurting self. They learn to appreciate what they have and their surroundings. A good containment awareness and engagement therapy causes the adolescent get to influenced to overcome the tendencies of self-harm (National Institute for Health and clinical Excellence, 2011, p. 3). It is important to evaluate if self-harm resulted from a manipulation of the past events. Ensure that past traumas and unresolved issues are dealt with. The adolescents may be inflicting harm on themselves to overcome memories or current situations. Treatment together with therapy can be given at the same time. Furthermore, the adolescent should be given the explanation why they need the medical care and that their cooperation is needed. Family therapy is an effective way of treating adolescent self-harm issues. The outcomes of family therapy are good communication and excellent ways of resolving conflicts within the family. It teaches the adolescent how to resolve problems. A firm relationship between the parents and the adolescent are significant in facilitating the family therapy. Additionally, the adolescent can be introduced in a group where they share with their peers challenges they are experiencing. They can learn to manage disappointments, anger, bad thoughts, mood swings and how they view the world. Parents have a role of lending a hand to adolescents from self-harm. Parents can increase the time they spend with the adolescents. They can create a calm mood in case of conflicts. The adolescents need to feel loved, appreciated and important. Parents can share stories in the family and what they experienced when growing up. Pa rents can set guidelines on what behavior is acceptable. Parents should listen and create time for talk in the family set up. Gardener (2001) notes that interventions and strategies in assisting adolescents will create support for prevention on further harm. It will give aid in developing a good atmosphere and culture that encourage communication. The strategies will teach the adolescent on the risks and provide help together with treatment when it happens. 4. Comparison of relevant psychological perspectives applied to the understanding of self-harm in adolescent. According to Kemp (2009, p. 78), there are two perspectives that explain self-harm in adolescents. One perspective propounds that containing, controlling and eliminating self-harm as the most important objective. Those who subscribe to the perspective are the medical institutions. They hardly have policies that could adequately support the recovery of self-harm in adolescence. The second perspective gives priority to assisting the individual share their emotion and gets to understand risks that self-harm behavior could cause. The perspective provides a way of dealing with self-harm situations. The individual learns how to cope and live a stable life. Those choosing to contain, control and eliminate approach tend to continue with the harmful behavior of hurting self in secret. They continue obtaining a service yet they do not stop the behavior. The individuals who have gone through past experiences of abuse and violence take a long time to recover. They lack trust in others and rarely get fully assisted. Those who pursue the approach where the individual is assisted from improved communication are capable of recovering from the behavior. The adolescent is allowed to share their emotions and not be blamed for events that happened so that they cope. This perspective is adopted in countries that have recognized the rights of the children. Their individual needs are given response according to their situation. The perspective emphasizes listening as part of helping the adolescent to relive stress. In this perspective the adolescent is enabled to see themselves as the decision maker in their life and to make the right choices. Jarvis (2012, p. 22) mentions that self injury is on the increase. Different perspectives heave emerged and it is the responsibility of parents or guardians, professionals, teachers and the adolescent to discourage the self-harm behavior. 5. An evaluation of uses and limitations of pre-existing risk assessment tools. According to the National Institute for Health and Clinical Evidence (2011, p. 18), risk assessment tools are useful in developing a structure to include relevant situation in a given state of affairs. The tools are not used for prediction of self-harm repetition in the future. It is used to determine what methods to be used for intervention, or to identify who should be identified as able to cope with the emotions. Assessment tools allow the person assisting the adolescent to identify the measure of risk they are exposed to. One of the tools is establishing what kind of self-harm they are engaging in. Find out whether the self-harm was occasional, frequent, in the past or in the present. Identify social, psychological and emotional factors that encourage the risk of self-harm. Investigate if they have ways of coping with the self-harm. Discover how they deal with emotions and other people before and after they engage in self-harm. Additionally, get to understand if they have support that motivate or dishearten their behavior. This comprises of the peers who may have introduced self-harm or it may be a secret matter. Analyze if the risks are short term or long term. Evaluate if the risks could lead to other risks or expose the adolescent to vices. Learn about their family setting and their daily activities. This will help get a good evaluation of the probable risks. 6. An exploration of own attitudes and beliefs and recognition of how of it may affect practice. As a practitioner, there is need for the adolescent to recognize the need to give assistance and exercise tolerance. Knowledge acquired increases motivation and skills when dealing with the adolescents. A good moral judgment is important in the practice of ethics. Moreover, a positive attitude will go a long way in making the intervention a success as Patterson et al (2007, p. 444) mention. Following the regulation and guidelines on helping the adolescents according to policies is essential. This will involve consulting various stake holders. They include the school, law on children’s rights and the policies created by the various psychological institutions. If the intervention is appropriately implemented depending on the needs of the individual, the adolescent can recover and live a productive life. They need assistance and a professional with competent guidance to recovery. Lamb (2012, p. 3), adds that those who do self-harm are aware that they hurt and cannot discard all problems by hurting self. They recognize the need to get assistance to overcome the negative emotions. If they are given the right approach, they can recover. Therefore, discouraging and providing help in self-harm will be serving an important need. 7. Conclusion. Self-harm can be overcome if the adolescent is assisted to cope and recover from the behavior. Ethics are followed in the interventions where the adolescent is assisted to recover using different strategies guided by policy. They include: family, group and relationship therapies. They are implemented according to the needs of the individual. The risk is assessed to measure level of self-harm by a professional. The professional ensures that they understand beliefs and make necessary adjustments. Bibliography Canadian Psychological associations. 2000. Canadian Code of Ethics for Psychologist. Third edition. Gardener, F. 2001. Self Harm: a psychotherapeutic Approach. London: Routledge. Jarvis, E. 2012. ‘Diverging perspectives on self-injury in psychology and Society: The last thirty years.’ The undergraduate Journal of psychology, 1, 18-23. Kemp, R. 2009. Self harm practice reference Guide. National centre for Excellence in residential Child. Kress, V. E. W. 2006. ‘Students who Self injure: school Counselor Ethical and legal considerations,’ American School Counselors Association. 1, 23. Lamb, A. N. 2012. Perspectives and beliefs of undergraduate students who self harm: attitudes towards their behavior and treatment considerations. Rhode: University of Rhode Island. Motz, A. 2009. Managing Self-harm: psychological Perspective. London: Routledge. National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence. 2001. Self-harm: long term management. NICE Clinical Guidelines 133. Ousey, K., and Ousey, Clair. 2010. ‘Intervention strategies for people who self-harm.’ Wounds, 6, 4, 34-37. Patterson, P. Whittington, R. and Bogg, J. 2007. ‘Measuring nurse attitude toward deliberate self-harm Antipathy Scale.’ Journal of psychiatric and Mental Health Nursing, 14, 438- 445. Read More