• Question: what would you do if you saw someone cutting themselves?

    Asked by Ella to Psychiatry Ward Team, Early Intervention Team on 24 Jan 2019.
    • Photo: Sheffield Psychiatry Ward Team

      Sheffield Psychiatry Ward Team answered on 24 Jan 2019:


      Hi Ella, Emma here 🙂

      People cut themselves for lots of reasons – sometimes it can be because they are under a lot of emotional stress, or because they want to distract themselves from their feelings.

      When someone comes into hospital it can be because they have hurt themselves already or because they are having thoughts of seriously hurting themselves. We assess everyone and if they need extra support we can increase the level of observations they are on. This means that nursing staff will check in on them more often to check whether they are doing okay, and with time this can decrease in frequency as people feel better. We would also look at coping strategies they could use, or distraction techniques.

      If someone cut themselves on the ward we would first check them over physically – this might include putting stitches in or even sending someone to hospital if needed. We would then assess their mental state and talk about why they cut themselves, to see if we can support them.

      In the long term often psychological therapy (talking therapies) can be useful in helping people find other ways of managing their emotions. One thing I like to recommend to people is having a ‘self-soothe box’. In a box, people would put something they like to do with each sense. In mine I would have chocolate to taste, a nice smelling hand cream to smell, a book to read or my favourite film to watch, or my favourite album to listen to. I’d put a nice pair of new pyjamas in there! This means that rather than cutting to feel relief people can reach for their box and find something else that might work.

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