What Next? Consider Safety Planning
Once the person is motivated to change, you can begin to help them consider alternative behaviours that can replace the self-harm. Ideally, these should come from the young person themselves, but you may need to have suggestions of your own. Information on distraction techniques and alternative behaviour strategies can be found here. Once appropriate alternative coping strategies are established, these should be used to form part of the person’s safety plan. It may be helpful to have them write this plan down or write it together. That way you can return to it to establish if it is successful or needs to be changed. It can be written in a formal safety plan or noted in a mobile phone depending on what the young person prefers.
Asking the person to keep a diary can be a useful way to evaluate the success of the management plan. This should be used to note any triggers, how often the young person self-harmed, and any other coping strategies they used. This will need to be monitored regularly.
Once the person has an established management plan, they will need support to implement and modify the plan as necessary. It is likely that the young person will experience a combination of success and failure so it is important to highlight the successes and not to assume the plan is not working. Any reduction in self-harming behaviour is an indication of success, and a diary will help to establish this pattern and make it explicit for the young person. Continuing to self-harm does not indicate failure and it may not be realistic to expect them to stop altogether. Help them to set specific, measurable, achievable, realistic goals. Regular check-ins are really important. Don’t expect a young person to manage the plan themselves over a long period of time particularly in the initial stages. A check-in every day or every few days might be necessary.
Remember to look after yourself when you are supporting a young person who is self-harming. Seek support from your line manager, colleagues and from partner agencies. Consult with them on a regular basis and seek advice where necessary.
