Self-harm

Can taking part in the arts help protect young people from suicide and self-harm?

Led by Dr Naomi Warne at the University of Bristol

Arts engagement - such as painting, music, theatre, creative writing and filmmaking - may support young people’s mental health, but its role in preventing self-harm and suicide is unclear.

Dr Naomi Warne at the University of Bristol will use Foundation funding to investigate whether arts engagement can help prevent self-harm and suicide in young people. The research will be co-designed alongside UK self-harm support charity Sift and young people with lived experience in the UK and Sri Lanka.

Using data collected from young people, Naomi and her team will examine long-term links between arts engagement and self-harm across different countries, identifying which patterns of arts engagement are most protective, who benefits the most, and whether any effects are specific to the arts.

These findings will inform the co-production of inclusive arts and wellbeing sessions for UK secondary schools aimed at preventing self-harm and suicide. This builds on Naomi’s previous work co-producing an arts-based prevention programme for anxiety and depression.

Together, this research aims to advance understanding of self-harm and suicide prevention and deliver a co-produced, evidence-based school prevention programme.