Citation

Long M, Manktelow R, Tracey A. Qual. Health Res. 2014; 25(7): 932-944.

Affiliation

University of Ulster, Magee Campus, Derry, United Kingdom.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2014, SAGE Publishing)

DOI

10.1177/1049732314554092

PMID

25294343

Abstract

Help seeking is known to be a complex and difficult journey for people who self-injure. In this article, we explore the process of help seeking from the perspective of a group of people living in Northern Ireland with a history of self-injury. We conducted 10 semistructured interviews and employed a grounded theory approach to data analysis. We created two major categories from the interview transcript data: (a) "involution of feeling," which depicts participants' perspectives on barriers to help seeking; and (b) "to be treated like a person," in which participants communicate their experiences of help seeking. The findings pose important implications for policy, practice, theory, and future research, including the need to increase the uptake of follow-up care among people who arrive at hospitals as a result of self-injury, self-harm, or suicidal behaviors.

Language: en