About this event

Scottish Health Action on Alcohol Problems (SHAAP) and the Scottish Alcohol Research Network (SARN) invite you to join us online on Monday 23 May from 12.30-14.00 BST (UK time) for our third SHAAP/SARN Alcohol Occasionals event of 2022.

Background: Alcohol use is widely understood to affect self-harm and suicide. While a significant body of literature identifies statistical relationships between self-harm and alcohol, there has been a lack of qualitative research exploring these relationships.

Methods: Eleven people who had experience of self-harm and alcohol use were recruited through community-based mental health organisations across England and Wales. Loosely structured interviews of around an hour took place virtually, inviting participants to ‘tell their stories’ about self-harm, alcohol use, the relationship between the two practices, and their experiences with services in relation to these.

Results: Participants described a wide range of drinking and self-harm practices, and service experiences. Accounts suggested that drinking and self-harm were deeply connected in multiple complex ways. Alcohol for some was necessary for and exacerbated self-harm; others framed alcohol use as self-harm; while some accounts indicated alcohol and self-harm were practiced in mutually exclusive ways – one helping avoid the other. Participants’ experiences with a range of services indicated many were unable to acknowledge or respond to their needs. Several participants reported hiding either alcohol use or self-harm from services, on the understanding that support may be revoked, or negative consequences would arise should they be seen as someone who both self-harmed and used alcohol. In other cases, services appeared to ignore the presence of alcohol or self-harm, focusing only on one. 

Conclusion: Findings underlined that a more flexible approach to service provision, enabling acknowledgment of the complex connections between drinking and self-harm, and the social aspects of both, is required. Involving people with ‘lived experience’ of both alcohol use and self-harm in the design of services, as well as the generation of a broader base of qualitative studies exploring these experiences among diverse groups, are both necessary to drive forward service improvement.

Project funding: Alcohol Change Cymru