For World Mental Health Day, researchers and mental health professionals working with ARC East of England have launched their co-produced online training program called SORTS (Supportive Response To Self-Harm). This programme aims to equip schools with the necessary tools and strategies to effectively respond to students who self-harm.
Left to right: Dr. Anne-Marie Burn, Dr. Joanna Anderson and Hayley Gains
Self-harm is a common problem among young people and is a serious health concern. 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. Rates of self-harm among young people have been rising, especially among those in their mid to late teens, with up to 34% of 15-year-olds reporting self-harm in their lifetime. School staff are often the first professionals to notice that a young person is self-harming and are in an ideal position to provide support, but many staff report that they lack knowledge and confidence in this area.
A research team at the University of Cambridge, Department of Psychiatry, have addressed this unmet training need and developed an online training programme for school staff to respond to self-harm.
Dr. Anne-Marie Burn, who co-led the study, said:
“Through our work with schools, staff told us that self-harm is an increasing problem, and they would like some training to better understand the causes of self-harm, so that they can feel more confident in their response. To address this need, our team have co-produced an online training programme to help schools respond supportively to students who self-harm...
Dr. Anne-Marie Burn, Co-Lead of SORTS
Anne-Marie continues,"We’ve worked with young people, school staff and experts in mental health to co-produce the SORTS training content and online platform.”
SORTS includes a 30-minute self-harm awareness e-learning module, which includes evidence-based information and scenarios for staff to reflect on how they would respond to a discovery or disclosure of self-harm. The training includes information about self-harm, why it happens and how to respond supportively. The free resource toolkit for schools on the SORTS website includes infographics, activity sheets and information leaflets for school staff, parents and young people.
Anne-Marie added: “SORTS is designed to be used as a whole school approach. The training module has been created for all staff members with little to no previous mental health training. Staff can download a CPD certificate after completing the training, so that the senior leadership team can incorporate this into their professional development plans and inset days...
By equipping school staff with skills and strategies to appropriately respond to disclosure of self-harm, we hope this will encourage young people to seek help and facilitate access to community resources and support.”
Dr. Anne-Marie Burn, Co-Lead of SORTS
This programme has been supported by the NIHR ARC East of England with mental health expertise from the Charlie Waller Trust. The team also worked with Haleem Clift, a filmmaker who produces mental health films with those who have lived experience.
Using a person-based approach, the research team have integrated feedback from school staff into the design and development of the training platform. Currently, staff in four schools are completing the e-learning module and providing qualitative and quantitative evaluation. Participating schools are situated in areas that have been identified as having high health needs.
School staff have fed back the following comments:
“Really, we all should have a knowledge. I think every member of staff being trained would help everybody respond...it might just be that we get better at talking about it, so it’s not such a taboo subject. And then there might be more understanding to help.”
“I literally had a situation like this yesterday. Having read some of the stuff that you guys had sent, so I couldn’t have been better-equipped for that conversation with the student”
SORTS study and workshop participants
Staff also gave positive feedback on the content of the website from both the perspective of a parent and a teacher:
"As a parent and a teacher, thank you so much, because actually, I looked at your website and learnt a lot already about how to cope with things."
SORTS study and workshop participant
The researchers gathered and collated key recommendations from all stakeholders to enhance the e-learning module, ensuring its relevance and utility for school staff. During the co-production workshops, staff emphasised the need for training that reflects the school context and promotes a whole school approach. They also suggested incorporating engaging elements that encourage participants to reflect on their own attitudes and beliefs alongside the training content. Additionally, staff requested generalisable and realistic filmed scenarios to illustrate the disclosure and discovery of self-harm.
The main challenges for the team were integrating various perspectives from young people, mental health practitioners, educators and peer-reviewed literature, which needed to be an iterative, continuous process of making adjustments and integrating the feedback from all viewpoints. Addressing self-harm is complex and sensitive, so the team also had to present the information in a way that is both practical but not distressing for trainees. School staff have demanding schedules, so they worked to ensure that the training covered all the necessary information while keeping the module under 30 minutes.
The SORTS e-learning module and resources are free and accessible to all schools online. With additional funding, the team aims to develop further modules focused on at-risk populations such as LGBT+ and neurodivergent young people. They plan to collaborate with local authorities, charitable organisations, and the Department for Education to broaden the module’s reach. Additionally, they are applying for funding to evaluate the SORTS training across a larger number of schools.
- School staff can complete the training and fill in the feedback at the end of the module: https://sorts4schools.org.uk/trainings/
- If you would like to be involved in this project or test the approach, email the team directly at: amb278@cam.ac.uk
- Access the resources on the SORTS website: https://sorts4schools.org.uk/
- The SORTS team includes Anne-Marie Burn, Jo Anderson and Hayley Gains.
