Association of Training on Attitudes Towards Self-Injuring Clients across Health Professionals

Abstract

The objective of this study was to evaluate associations between self-injury training and attitudes across different health care professions. In the study, 342 psychologists, social workers, psychiatric, and medical nurses were recruited from 12 hospitals in Belgium. Participants completed a confidential questionnaire assessing attitudes, perceived knowledge/competence in self-injury, and prior self-injury training. Professionals with training reported more positive empathy, less negative attitudes, and greater perceived knowledge/competence, which was related to positive attitudes. Mental health providers had more positive attitudes than medical professionals. Conclusions: Attitudes towards self-injuring patients are multifaceted and vary across health professions. Training on self-injury should be incorporated into the educational curriculum of all health care professions.

Keywords:

• attitudes
• health professional
• self-harm
• self-injury
• training

Notes

Note. ^a Psychologist score is significant greater, p < .01.

ˆthere was a trend towards Psychologist being higher than social worker p < .07.

^b Other Nurse score is significantly greater, p < .05.

Note. * = Psychologist mean score is significantly greater than all the other professional group scores; no other group comparisons were significantly different.

^a Psychiatric Nurse score is significantly greater.

^b Psychologist score is significantly greater.