Self-harm

Part of 1. Questions to the First Minister – in the Senedd at 2:07 pm on 3 March 2020.

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Photo of Angela Burns Angela Burns Conservative 2:07, 3 March 2020

First Minister, in the first eight weeks of this year, I've already dealt with four different sets of parents who have come to me bereft, in tears, not knowing what to do, because their child has started to self-harm or has been self-harming for some time. And of course, it is sometimes a precursor leading into eating disorders, and so on. What seems to be very difficult for them to find is real support, understanding and comprehension, so they go to the internet to try to read up about it. I've pointed them and signposted them to charities that I know of. I appreciate that there's a lot done in schools and in the school setting to educate the children. We wait for child and adolescent mental health services to come and step in, or we wait for other mental health interventions.

But I wondered if your Government might turn its mind to reviewing and seeing if we can improve the support that parents and carers can receive. Because it is a very unknown minefield for so many of them, and they are terrified; they don't want to say the wrong thing, to encourage it by mistake, to say, 'Come on, let's have something', and for it to lead to worse and worse and worse sadness in the young child or the young person, and to greater mental health issues. So, more support for parents, or more easily-accessible support, because even with the resources I have in the Assembly, I'm still not clear of all of the opportunities there are to support parents and carers.