In this presentation I explore diverse ways that General Practitioners (GPs) in Scotland understand and respond to ‘self-harm’ in their patients. Drawing on a study conducted in 2013-14, I present a narrative-informed analysis of the ways that GPs talked about different ‘types’ of patients who self-harmed. This analysis underlines the dynamic and variable ways that self-harm can be understood within general practice, with the potential to shape clinical responses. In particular, I will demonstrate how the gender and age of patients attending with self-harm appeared to affect the meanings self-harm was understood to have, and especially the potential relationship between self-harm and suicide. This has implications for suicide prevention and responses to suicide in General Practice, other clinical settings, and beyond. In closing, I reflect on some of the ways that this analysis continues to inform our ongoing work on the Suicide Cultures project, as we explore further variations in meanings and understandings of suicide (and self-harm) across diverse communities in Scotland.

This talk draws on a previously published paper (‘The social life of self-harm in general practice’ part of a special issue of Social Theory and Health on ‘The Social Life of Self-Harm’ guest edited by Pete Steggals, Ruth Graham and Steph Lawler), the open access version of the article can be accessed here.

The study was funded by the Chief Scientists’ Office (Scotland), and was a collaboration with Steve Platt, Chris Burton and Caroline King, who are co-authors on the paper.