<p>Deliberate Self-Harm is a term used when a person deliberately hurts themselves without the intent of suicide. Other names for self-harm are self-injury, cutting and self-mutilation. This is often done by cutting, burning, hitting, scratching and picking. However this behaviour can come in even more severe forms such as bone breaking.</p><p> </p><p><strong>Why do Young People Hurt Themselves?</strong></p><p>People injure themselves to relieve, express or control overwhelming emotional pain or psychological distress. It is often described as a <strong>maladaptive attempt</strong> at self-help.</p><p>Some of the stressors that can trigger a person to self-harm include:</p><p>Being overwhelmed or anxious, despair, wanting to punish others, feeling disappointed, depression, having thoughts of suicide, not feeling real or alive, practical problems, relationship issues, needing to control their bodies, intense pain needing to be released, feeling angry.</p><p><strong>Each person who self-injures</strong> has a <strong>unique story</strong> and reasons for why they choose this behaviour.</p><p> </p><p><strong>What risks are involved with self-harm?</strong></p><p>Some people injure themselves occasionally in response to<strong> intense emotional distress</strong> while others do so frequently and become preoccupied with the behaviour. For some individuals, self-injurious behaviour can have “addictive” qualities where the frequency and severity of injuries are increased over time in order to <strong>experience the same level of relief</strong>. Risks of self-injurious behaviour include permanent scarring, infection, and death. Roughly one in ﬁve self-injurers has made a life-threatening self-inﬂicted injury without meaning to.</p><p> </p><p><strong>Managing Self-Harm training with Social Care Training Ireland</strong></p><p>This one day course takes a broad, holistic and <strong>child centered approach</strong>, enabling participants to understand and apply best-practice in their care setting. It provides participants with responses suited to their particular setting and to work intensively on knowledge, skills, practice and policy development for their field. The course is based on a group learning and <strong>participant-centred approach</strong> and participants <strong>leave the course highly resourced</strong> in terms of their own practice and also as leaders and <strong>developers of innovative responses</strong> in their field.</p><p> </p><p>Our trainers are social care workers with years of practical experience in dealing with self-harm and have completed STORM<sup>® </sup>training.</p><p><strong>Certification: </strong> Social Care Training Ireland Certificate in Non-Suicidal Self-Injury and Self-Harm Awareness</p><p> </p><p><em>You may also be interested in our one day, certified Alcohol and Drug Awareness training course.</em></p><p>Contact us on 0818 220 261 or email mary.hutton@socialcaretraining.ie for more information on our training courses.</p>