Self-harm is a complex behaviour and we still have much to learn about it. There are many different factors that interact and evolve over time that may lead a young person to self-harm. There are not currently many evidence-based interventions to support young people who self-harm and most have not been co-developed with young people.
CaTS helps young people tell the story of their self-harm journey by mapping the thoughts, feelings and events involved in a self-harm episode. A timeline is set out with multiple timepoints starting from 6 months prior to self-harm and ending after self-harm. Young people are provided with a bank of cards grouped into thoughts and feelings, events, behaviours, services and support, afterwards. Young people choose cards with items relevant to their experience of a self-harm episode at and arrange the cards along the timeline.
Co-designing our programme of work alongside our Sprouting Minds young people group is an integral part of the development of CaTS-App (a digital version of CaTS). We have a wonderful group of young people working with us on this programme who have joined us in running workshops, analysing data, checking through our final reports and sharing early findings at dissemination events.