Why is self-harm a child protection issue?

[lookingoutonafieldofsheep]

Any Social Workers or other professionals out there who can tell me where I can find references to why self-harm is a child protections issue? I remember years ago a young woman up north was due to have her baby taken away from her at birth because she'd self-harmed in her teen years. I'm curious to know whether this is actually 'written down' practice. I think the woman was taken under TV's wing and escaped to Scandanivia to have her babe.

Are you talking about Fran Lyon? I think she's still in Scandinavia.

Was it not due to the fact they thought she hadbMunchausen's Syndrome by proxy? I could be wrong its been a while...

It is not as far as I am aware, standard practice to remove a child due to past self harming of a parent, or indeed current self harming, however, there would certainly be social services involvement as a consequence of it, certainly current, to ensure there were no safety issues.

Emotional harm is just as detrimental, if not more detrimental to a child growing up as it is not so easily quantifiable as physical scars. If someone is cutting themselves, for example, there is a risk of accidental death, of becoming unconscious while caring for a minor, of that child/children being witness to self harm, having access to self harming impliments, there is more likely to be mental health issues which have wider implications for childcare ability and this needs to be monitored, all sorts of reasons why social services would have involvement in families where there is known self harm. That does not necessarily mean child protection plans, but, depending on what else is going on the family, it might. In the same way as someone with alcohol dependency does not necessarily have child protection involvement in their family, but the wider implications/concerns/mental health issues often associated with alcoholism means there might be.

My god I've never had ss involvement with me and my family over my self harming and I've done it since I was 14. I've never made it a secret and my doctor, healthvisitor and homestart coordinator all know and I've had a lot of support from these people.

My kids don't know and never will as I am so careful not to let them see my cuts and bruises. I am much better now I haven't done it since dd3 was born 5 months ago

It has shocked me that you can get your kids taken away from you if you self harm

What Pavlov said.

sheep thats what I mean. SS are only involved in familes if there are support issues there, and child protection plans only ever come about if there is a risk to the child. the self harm itself is not the concern, it is all the things that might go with it, and that is true of alcohol, drugs, and other self harm. The nature of self harm can be indicative of other concerns, as is was the case the OP referred to I believe. it would not have been the self harming that caused her to have her child taken away, or rather have it threatened. It would have been other concerns. or, should have been. but it was a long time ago, decisions were much more arbitrary then.

If you have your self harm under control so to speak, and have support networks in place, including gp etc, and no ss involvement, then that means there are no other concerns. And it not always the case that there are. Some people who drink excessively and openly have no ss involvement (less so drugs).

Just to clarify - its not me who self-harms. I have read its a coping strategy for emotional pain though and not a suicide attempt which does make sense and fits with postings above about being linked to 'other issues'.

However on a recent child-minding course we were given forms for registering with Ofsted (if you do more than 2 hours child-minding a day you have to be reg). There's a list of illnesses etc you might have which seems just to check your general health (fair enough) but there's a totally separate section on 'have you ever self-harmed' and I wondered why this was given such importance. As I said in the OP, I'd only ever heard of it as a child protection issue once.

Self harm is generally used as a coping mechanism to manage overwhelming emotional pain or distress. It is generally a private act and parents who self harm are less likely to let their children see them. The main thing about self harm is to find out the function it serves for that person.

yes it is a coping strategy similar to alcohol and drugs, eating disorders, excessive exercise etc. any support given to someone who self harms would be best placed concentrating on helping the person identify what triggers the self harm and its functions - and offer real support or referral if necessary. the self harm could be due to some form of child abuse that the parent experienced, therefore for professionals/social workers to concentrate on taking away the parent's children because they are self harm in an attempt to deal with their past, would be totally barking up the wrong tree!