TY  - JOUR
PY  - 2017//
TI  - Getting out of (self-) harm's way: a study of factors associated with self-harm among asylum seekers in Australian immigration detention
JO  - Journal of forensic and legal medicine
A1  - Hedrick, Kyli
SP  - 89
EP  - 93
VL  - 49
IS  - 
N2  - The monitoring of self-harm among asylum seekers in Australian immigration detention has not occurred routinely or transparently. Thus whilst concerns regarding rates of self-harm among asylum seekers have been frequently raised, a paucity of systematic information regarding key factors associated with self-harm among asylum seekers exists. The present study was designed therefore to fill a number of gaps in government monitoring by examining the government's own archived self-harm data. Via a descriptive analysis of self-harm incident reports from all operational Australian immigration detention facilities over a 20-month period to May 2011, obtained under Freedom of Information, the present study identified that 959 incidents of self-harm occurred during this period. A gender bias towards men was also found. In addition to this, 10 different methods of self-harm were identified, the four most common being: cutting (47%), attempted hanging (19%), head hitting (12%) and self-poisoning by medication (6%). Seven different precipitating factors for self-harm were also identified, the four most common were: detention conditions (39%), processing arrangements (27%), negative decisions (24%) and family separation (3%). These findings point strongly to the health benefits of considering alternatives to held immigration detention, such as community based processing.<br><br>Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd and Faculty of Forensic and Legal Medicine. All rights reserved.<p />  <p>Language: en</p>
LA  - en
SN  - 1752-928X
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jflm.2017.05.014
ID  - ref1
ER  -