jurious behavior in adolescence remains prevalent and is increasing, pointing to the need for high school staff to understand how to deal with this problem.
School staff must understand that there are possible complications involved in SIB. Kress (2003) noted that gender and culture issues must be considered when dealing with SIB. For example head banging is more common in males and self-biting is more common in females and body piercing may be a common practice in one culture and be considered self-injury in another. Self-injurious behaviors range in severity from skin-cutting to amputation of a body part. In addition, self-mutilation in adolescents is associated with co-morbidity and suicide attempts. These individuals demonstrate higher scores on depression, anxiety, somatic, and cognitive disturbance subscales and are diagnosed with many other disorders (major depression, dysthymia, dissociative identity disorder, anxiety disorders, adjustment disorders, substance abuse disorders, eating disorders, schizophrenia, and personality disorders) (Kress, 2003; Stanley et al., 2001). .
High school staff must know how to help the SIB adolescent. Assessment of the adolescent and their problem includes the ability to understand symptoms, cotrse of SIB, and severity, along with client safety needs (Kress, 2003). Treatment for SIB varies with each patient and the severity of the behaviors and there is little agreement on how to treat it optimally (Zila & Kiselica, 2001). School staff and counselors must be aware of their reaction to and understanding of SIB and they must understand legal and ethical considerations, SIB issues, and multiple treatment options. The survey assessing school staff knowledge of SIB and the need for the SIB workshop supported the need for the development of a SIB workshop. The SIB Workshop was developed based on a review of the literature on self-mutilation.
The purpose of this graduate proj...