Experiences of general practice care for self-harm: a qualitative study of young people’s perspectives

Journal article

Background Self-harm in young people is a growing public health concern. Young people commonly present to their GP for help with self-harm, and thus general practice may be a key setting to support young people who have self-harmed. Aim To examine the potential of general practice to support young people aged 10–25 years who have harmed themselves. Design & setting A narrative review of published and grey literature. Method The Scale for the Assessment of Narrative Review Articles (SANRA) was used to guide a narrative review to examine the potential of general practice to support young people who have self-harmed. The evidence is presented textually. Results The included evidence showed that GPs have a key role in supporting young people, and they sometimes relied on gut feeling when handling uncertainty on how to help young people who had self-harmed. Young people described the importance of initial clinician responses after disclosing self-harm, and if they were perceived to be negative, the self-harm could become worse. Conclusion In context of the evidence included, this review found that general practice is a key setting for the identification and management of self-harm in young people; but improvements are needed to enhance general practice care for young people to fulfil its potential

Authors: Mughal, F; Dikomitis, L; Babatunde, OO; Chew-Graham, CA

• Publication status: Published
• Peer review status: Peer reviewed
• Publisher: Royal College of General Practitioners
• Journal: British Journal of General Practice
• Volume: 71
• Issue: 711
• Pages: e744-e752
• Publication date: 2021-05-04
• DOI: 10.3399/bjgp.2021.0091
• EISSN: 1478-5242
• ISSN: 0960-1643
• Language: English
• Keywords: Medicine; General practice; Family medicine; Mental health; Help-seeking; Harm; Sociology; Qualitative research; Psychiatry; Psychology; Nursing; Reflexivity; Thematic analysis; Social psychology