Issues Most Important to Parents After Their Children's Suicide Attempt: A Pilot Delphi Study

Parents' Information Needs in Relation to Adolescent Self-Harm: Perspectives of Parents and Professionals

OBJECTIVE

Discovering that an adolescent is self-harming is extremely distressing for parents and this distress can be compounded by lack of easily accessible and well targeted information on what they can do to help. Some research has even suggested that parental distress can be an obstacle to seeking professional help. This paper describes two studies that sought to identify the information needs of parents in the immediacy of discovering self-harm and in ongoing efforts to support their child.

METHOD

Study 1: on-line survey of 128 parents who had experienced their child's self-harm; study 2: two-round Delphi method with 29 professionals who provide therapeutic interventions to adolescents who self-harm. The primary aim of both studies was to elicit views on parents' information needs in relation to supporting adolescents who self-harm.

RESULTS

There was a high level of agreement between parents and professionals on the needs for information on topics such as: communication, psychoeducation, managing emotional responses, parenting strategies and interventions. The professionals also emphasized the need for parents to practice self-care and the value of teaching alternative coping strategies to adolescents. Parents placed greater emphasis than professionals on the need for information on future therapeutic needs.

CONCLUSION

Despite the agreement between parents and professionals on most of the information needed, there were sufficient differences in emphasis to confirm the importance of consulting with both groups. The findings can be used to develop information sources that are specifically tailored to the needs of parents at all stages of adolescent self-harm.

Understanding and change - Parents' perspectives of their self-poisoning children: A phenomenological study

PURPOSE

This study aimed to describe the experiences of parents of self-poisoning in Wenzhou, China.

BACKGROUND

Self-poisoning by a child results in severe trauma, placing parents at great risk for psychological and physical problems. However, few studies have examined the experiences of parents following the attempted suicide of their child through self-poisoning, limiting the ability to guide effective services through empirical research.

METHODS

The study adopted a qualitative design and 11 parents whose children harmed themselves through self-poisoning were included. Semi-structure, face-to-face interviews were conducted and Colaizzi's analysis method was followed.

RESULTS

Colaizzi's method identified three key themes: against expectations, sense of guilt, and self-growth.

CONCLUSIONS

The findings highlight the need to understand experiences of parents with self-poisoning children. Nursing staff play an important role in creating a pathway to connect parents with their children. There is a need to include the voices of parents so as to not only care for self-poisoning children but also understand their suicidal behavior.