As a mental health
practitioner who specializes in helping adolescents overcome Non-Suicidal Self-Injury
(NSSI), I was appalled to read of an Okanagan/Skaha School District 67 School Board ruling “ordering a
grade-nine student to wear long sleeves at all times to cover scars”. It is short-sighted
and puritanical actions like this that continue to vilify those struggling with
mental health issues, resulting in those who need help being fearful of
reaching out for it. On the flip-side, I
am heartened by the wise and outspokenness of the students who are standing up
to this repulsive action.
NSSI is a process
mostly used to counter overwhelming emotional and physical distress and only ‘works’
for 16.9% of the population. A smaller
percentage use it to escape feelings of dissociation or depersonalization;
feeling numb physically and emotionally.
Most importantly, 50% use it to avoid suicide, so in many cases NSSI is
the only thing keeping them alive.
NSSI is NOT ‘contagious’. In her longitudinal study of self-injury, Dr
Mary Kay Nixon of the University of Victoria found that 72% of adolescents who
self-injure believe they came up with the idea on their own, while under 10%
learned of it through friends, family or television.
Mental health issues
are one of the largest crises our society faces today, with 25% of children and
adolescents developing an anxiety or mood disorder in their school years; 1 in
3 girls and 1 in 5 boys being sexually abused before they graduate high school
and the resultant post-traumatic symptoms that go with it.
Our school board
needs to wake up to the fact that right now among the 4000+ population of their students between the ages
of 12-18 years, 680 are engaging in NSSI and will do so for an average of 21
months; 286 will continue into adulthood and 8 will complete suicide within 15
years of the onset of self-injury. Only
an open dialogue without shame or judgement can help these students come
forward to ask for the help they may need.
We look to our educational
authorities such as SD 67 to provide education based on current and best
practice; to be leaders in the field of helping our young people navigate life;
to nurture and promote inclusivity amongst our student population. Certainly not to vilify and shame a young
woman for doing her best to cope. I
applaud the students who are leading the charge to change the outdated and
harmful attitudes of SD 67 administrators, and remind them of the words of cultural
anthropologist Margaret Mead;
“Never doubt that a
small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed,
it's the only thing that ever has.”
Aaron D. McClelland, MPCC-S - www.interiorcounselling.com
