What is it about?
Using harm minimisation techniques with people who self injure is controversial as harm is allowed as part of the therapeutic process. It has been criticised as a way of colluding with a dysfunctional type of behaviour. That is, self injury. I argue that it is in fact an appropriate means of supporting some people who self injure. It respects the role their current actions have as a means of coping and appreciates that they need to maintain this type of coping strategy until new ways of dealing with distress are developed. It is an intervention that is based on care and respect.
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Why is it important?
This paper focuses on a controversial area of clinical practice that raises important clinical and moral issues.
Perspectives
My work is informed by my experience as a mental health care professional who has worked in services in some capacity since the 1970’s. More importantly it respects the development of ideas that owe a debt of gratitude to people with lived experience of self injury and who have often experienced services provided in a negative way. Instead of accepting this they have engaged with these services and helped develope new perspectives of which this is one.
Patrick Sullivan
University of Manchester
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Allowing harm because we care: Self-injury and harm minimisation, Clinical Ethics, January 2018, SAGE Publications,
DOI: 10.1177/1477750917749953.
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