Parents' Information Needs in Relation to Adolescent Self-Harm: Perspectives of Parents and Professionals.

Objective: Discovering that an adolescent is self-harming is extremely distressing for parents and this distress can be compounded by lack of easily accessible and well targeted information on what they can do to help. Some research has even suggested that parental distress can be an obstacle to seeking professional help. This paper describes two studies that sought to identify the information needs of parents in the immediacy of discovering self-harm and in ongoing efforts to support their child.