Development of e-learning modules for secondary schools to improve their response to students who self-harm

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elf-harm is a common problem among adolescents and is a serious health concern. Self-harm is when you hurt yourself on purpose. There are lots of reasons why young people self-harm but it is often a reaction to difficult and distressing feelings. Research shows that young people who self-harm are more likely to have mental health difficulties in later life and are at a higher risk of suicide. School staff are often the first professionals to notice that a young person is self-harming and are in an ideal position to provide those students with support. However, many teachers say they do not have the right knowledge or training to deal with the problem, and they do not feel confident in how they should react. Many schools do not have a self-harm policy in place and this means staff may not have clear guidance in how to respond to students who self-harm. There is a clear need to provide schools with the tools and training to help them address pupils who self-harm. We anticipate that by equipping school staff with skills and strategies to appropriately respond to disclosure of self-harm, this will encourage young people to seek help, and facilitate access to community resources and support. To address this gap, our team of researchers have co-produced an online training programme for schools to respond to self-harm (called SORTS). We worked with young people, school staff and experts in mental health to develop the training content and online platform. The current study will continue the development of the SORTS training programme. We will co-produce two stand-alone e-learning modules which will consist of evidence-based information and scenarios for staff to practice and consolidate new skills, and a bank of resources for staff to signpost pupils to further support. The modules will be co-produced with school staff and experts in education and mental health. Module1 will be a self-harm awareness and response training for all school staff and will take about 15-20 minutes for staff to complete. They will receive a continuing professional development (CPD) certificate at the end of the training. Module2 will be a briefer gateway version and will take staff about 5-10 minutes to complete as part of their induction. Both modules will sit on the existing SORTS portal. We will then seek further funding to carry out an evaluation to find out if the SORTS training programme is effective and useful for schools.