Madeline Wishart, front, and her supervisor Dr Karen Hallam hope her research will make a difference to the lives of some young people. 77317 Picture: DAMJAN JANEVSKI
By VANESSA CHIRCOP
THIS Thursday is Self-Injury Awareness Day and while it is recognised widely in the United Kingdom and parts of the United States, Australia is yet to mark it.
Madeline Wishart would like to see this change.
The PhD student at St Albans’ Victoria University is researching why young people initially start self-harming for her 80,000 word thesis The Body as a Voice: A Biopsychosocial Understanding of Self-Harm.
“We’re trying to gain an understanding of why people initially start self-harming – what makes them first pick up an implement and actually hurt themselves as opposed to using another coping mechanism,” she said.
“We all cope in strange ways, some of us eat when we’re stressed, some of us become gym junkies, some of us smoke or drink or take a pill but some of us self-harm … particularly in adolescents it’s quite prevalent.”
The Altona Meadows resident and her PhD supervisor, Dr Karen Hallam, hope her research will help dispel some of the myths surrounding self-harm and give Australia a broader understanding of the behaviour.
“We’re looking at a biopsychosocial, so we’re looking with a broad angled lens at the whole area … why people do it, why they continue to do it but also we’re looking at what’s helped them to stop, so we can aim to create an intervention that’s more empirically sound.”
Ms Wishart is surveying not just people who have self-harmed, but mental health practitioners and also those who have never self-harmed.
More than 700 people have already taken part in the survey.
“With Self-Injury Awareness Day, I thought this is a great opportunity to get this out there and dispel some of the myths,” Ms Wishart said.
“There’s a real misconception in schools that it’s an attention seeking behaviour … there’s also the myth that everyone that self harms is an emo or a goth, which isn’t true at all.
“People from all walks of life self-harm and from all age groups.”
The mother of two is expected to complete her PhD by the end of this year. For more information on the study or to take part in the survey visit facebook.com/thebodyasavoice.
