 Hello and welcome back today. I am answering a question that I have been asked many times And was asked again recently via one of my YouTube subscribers You can always ask me questions drop them in the comments below and I add them to my to film list So this question is about self-harm and the question is should self-harm injuries or scars be covered up? Now I can't give you a definitive answer because you may work somewhere Where or go to school somewhere where there's a specific policy on this or specific Procedures in place and you need to consult with that But it might be that some of the ideas in here give you a little bit of pause for thought And you might begin to question some of those policies and procedures So I looked into this quite a lot and I spoke into a lot of colleagues who are experts in the field I've also consulted with people who work with young people and I've talked to young people themselves about how they feel about it And I've come to what I think is quite an informed view But I'm also really really happy for that view to be challenged So if you've got different ideas on this or your experiences don't bear out what I say in the video Please leave a comment below and let's have a conversation so my kind of rule of thumb basically is that When an injury is still an injury then we need to think first-a-first and that naturally Injuries which are in any way any sort of like open wound or wound that is in the process of healing Then we would cover that up because we do not want to risk infection And so yes, so you're likely to keep that covered with a dressing and keep it covered with clothing The other reason for keeping injuries covered is that it can also be triggering for other people who might be struggling with self-harm So that that's kind of an additional reason But the key reason here is actually about the safety of the person who has an injury We want to allow it to heal properly in just the way that we would with any other wound So if you had burnt yourself or cut yourself Accidentally then you would be unlikely to kind of have that wound sort of on show however Once a wound gets to the point where it's fully healed and a scar has formed then I think things begin to change and Here I think that we should treat those scars just as we would any other scar So imagine that the scar had been gained through an a car accident, for example Then that scar should be either covered or not by clothing Depending on the situation depending on the weather largely so dress for the weather But also dress with what makes you feel comfortable So some people who have gained scars through accident or who perhaps have for example birthmarks They might choose to Camouflage them with makeup or cover them up with clothing because they don't like them and that might be you know That's a subject for another discussion We might want to explore about Acceptance of our own bodies and our scars no matter how they are obtained But some people choose to cover them up because they don't want them on show other people are completely happy to have them You know just just to dress for the weather and if that means shorts leaves and scars are showing on arms For example, then so be it No one should make that decision on behalf of someone who has scars other than that person themselves now The one thing you might want to bear in mind So largely when we're thinking about self harm we tend automatically to think to young people and what they would be doing For example in a school or social situation, but sometimes the person who self-harm isn't the child sometimes It's the teacher. I'm the person who self-harm sometimes and haven't done for many months now Touching wood and working hard on that but I have scars and I've had to ask this question of myself quite a lot and One of the things if we are in a position where young people look up to us and we're working with vulnerable groups Who might be more at risk of self-harm or might be self-harming themselves a big Question that always I bear in mind here is how are these scars going to be interpreted by these people that I'm working with? and One thing I have had fed back to me about my scars in the past They've they they over time they look less bad and they heal more and they become paler But when they were Looking worse, I guess one piece of feedback I had from a young person which I took very seriously and have talked with others about it since is that when an Adult who is teaching or talking about these issues and encouraging you to come forward and talk about for example Self-harm if you have an issue with it if that adult Has scars which are more severe than the type of injury that you're inflicting on yourself Then you might feel less likely To come forward and talk about your issues because you don't think your issues are bad enough And actually this is the same reason why when we are showing Video content or resources in class about things like eating disorders or self-harm. We don't show injuries We don't show emaciation. We don't show extremes Because what can happen then is the young person think well, I'm not thin enough to deserve help my Injuries aren't bad enough to deserve help. So if you're working with young people It's just something to bear in mind if you have particularly You know if your if your scars are particularly I guess big And that might make a young person think ah, okay. I'm not bad enough to deserve their help They won't take me seriously Then either you need to tackle that head-on by saying you know literally saying that The injuries of any size The size of the injury doesn't indicate the level of discomfort and distress that the young person might be in and that He would always be taken seriously and then to actually follow through with that Or to think about whether it's appropriate to have those scars on show. So that's just something to bear in mind The other thing is that yeah, anyone of any age who does have their scars on show That means it sounds like you're kind of going. Yeah, look at my scars Look at my scars and that's not at all I mean what I mean is if you're just dressing for the weather and people might happen to see your scars You kind of have to be prepared for three things One is that if people see that you have scars which are clearly from self-harm Then you are more likely to happen people make a disclosure to you whether you're an adult or a young person So you need to be prepared for that you need to be prepared how you would respond if someone started talking to you about their own self-harm issues and What you know what you would do what you would suggest how you might support them or how you might kind of Suggest they go and get help somewhere else So you need to be prepared for that that yeah someone who is struggling themselves might suddenly go Oh, this is someone who might understand and they might make that disclosure. So yeah plan ahead for that The next one and this sounds really weird is that people might just not notice so often It can be a really big thing kind of building up to the point where we feel ready To be open and honest with the world by wearing clothing Which reveals scars about which we have lots of different feelings and every scar might tell a different story And this might feel such an integral and massive part of us that is linked with kind of I don't know Sometimes with guilt and shame, but also sometimes with a huge sense of pride because yeah These are scars now and these are battles that I won And when we have all those feelings mixed up and then we have our scars Visible and nobody even notices that can be strangely difficult to manage. So that's something to be prepared for too And the third thing that we have to be prepared for Is that people might ask questions? So it might not be that they're making disclosures about their own self-harm, but they might ask Oh, how did you get those injuries particularly young children might do this? And so you need to think about, you know, who you're going to come into contact with what kind of questions You might get and how you feel happy Responding to those questions and what's an appropriate sort of age and stage way to respond to these questions from the people Who might be asking them? So for example when it comes to younger children I often found that if young children asked me about my scars then I would explain that Well, these are something that happen when I'm poorly a bit like remember when you got chicken pox and you when you were poorly Then you got those spots on your body and it left some scars behind and and it's a little bit like that for me When I was poorly with depression then that's when I got these scars But they're getting better now because I'm getting better too and that often you find particularly with young kids They're like, oh, yeah, right, whatever. Can we play with the, you know, I don't know. Can we go play with Lego now? And and they kind of move on. So, yeah, okay, hopefully some food for thought But yeah, so the long and the short of it should scars be covered I think when an injury is an injury, it should be treated as such it needs to be kept covered away from risk of infection and Should also just bear in mind that this might be triggering for someone Scars I think we should dress for the weather but just bear in mind who we're gonna be around and be prepared for the responses We may or may not get from those around us. I hope this was helpful I would really really love to have a conversation about this So please leave comments below with any thoughts you have what you agree with what you disagree with What your experience has been of this and maybe what policies you have in place where you work if that's applicable And yeah, yeah start the conversation. I Yeah, and Completely lost my train of thought. Okay. Yeah, that happens If you would like to watch me lose my train of thought in future videos, then please subscribe And if you found this useful, then please give it a thumbs up and I will see you next time. Goodbye