ABSTRACT
Research published in January 2005 by the National Inquiry into Self Harm, found that one in ten 15-16-year-olds had deliberately hurt themselves. A year earlier, an NHS agency had warned that self harm was reaching ‘epidemic’ proportions, with growing numbers admitted to hospital casualty departments. The problem can be particularly difficult to tackle in schools, where teenage girls have been known to set up ‘cutting clubs’ at break, and where you can find yourself bewildered and disgusted by children who deliberately hurt themselves.
