Scotland’s Self-Harm Strategy & Action Plan
A new strategy, developed jointly between the Scottish Government and COSLA focused on supporting people who self-harm has launched, backed by an investment from the Scottish Government of £1.5 million.
The strategy, informed by people with lived experience – is believed to be the first of its kind in the world.
It includes a three-year action plan which will prioritise tackling stigma and discrimination and improving support for people who have self-harmed – particularly those known to be at higher risk.
The plan focuses on three areas:
- deepening knowledge and compassionate understanding of self-harm
- building support and services across Scotland
- improving and sharing data and evidence
As part of the strategy, the Scottish Government funding supports a national webchat service offering people help out-of-hours.
The webchat service is part of Self Harm Network Scotland, run by Penumbra. They provide up-to-date, reliable and accessible advice for anyone affected by self-harm.
Self Harm Network Scotland also offer free training sessions – either in-person or online.
The action plan has specific priorities relating to students in further and higher education:
Priority 1 : Continue to expand and deepen knowledge and embed
compassionate understanding of self-harm and tackle stigma and
discrimination:
Explore further opportunities to include safe and evidence-based self-harm learning content and materials in:
a. Core training and continuous professional development for key professional
groups
b. Schools and further and higher education
c. Parenting and family support programmes and resources.
