Online Resources for People Who Self-Harm and Those Involved in Their Informal and Formal Care: Observational Study with Content Analysis

Daniel Romeu, Elspeth Guthrie, Cathy Brennan, Kate Farley and Allan House
Additional contact information
Daniel Romeu: Leeds Institute of Health Sciences, University of Leeds, Leeds LS2 9NL, UK
Elspeth Guthrie: Leeds Institute of Health Sciences, University of Leeds, Leeds LS2 9NL, UK
Cathy Brennan: Leeds Institute of Health Sciences, University of Leeds, Leeds LS2 9NL, UK
Kate Farley: Leeds Institute of Health Sciences, University of Leeds, Leeds LS2 9NL, UK
Allan House: Leeds Institute of Health Sciences, University of Leeds, Leeds LS2 9NL, UK

IJERPH, 2020, vol. 17, issue 10, 1-13

Abstract: Despite recent fears about online influences on self-harm, the internet has potential to be a useful resource, and people who self-harm commonly use it to seek advice and support. Our aim was to identify and describe UK-generated internet resources for people who self-harm, their friends or families, in an observational study of information available to people who search the internet for help and guidance. The different types of advice from different websites were grouped according to thematic analysis. We found a large amount of advice and guidance regarding the management of self-harm. The most detailed and practical advice, however, was limited to a small number of non-statutory sites. A lay person or health professional who searches the web may have to search through many different websites to find practical help. Our findings therefore provide a useful starting point for clinicians who wish to provide some guidance for their patients about internet use. Websites change over time and the internet is in constant flux, so the websites that we identified would need to be reviewed before making any recommendations to patients or their families or friends.

Keywords: self-harm; internet; self-help; advice; guidance (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/17/10/3532/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/17/10/3532/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:17:y:2020:i:10:p:3532-:d:359665

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().