%0 Journal Article
%T Lived Experiences of Legal Guardians of Adolescents Who Deliberate Self-Harm
%A Roberto Galea
%A Michael Galea
%J Open Access Library Journal
%V 5
%N 12
%P 1-16
%@ 2333-9721
%D 2018
%I Open Access Library
%R 10.4236/oalib.1105098
%X <div style="text-align:justify;">
	<span style="line-height:1.5;">Objectives: To explore and understand the lived experiences of the legal guardians of adolescents who engaged in Deliberate Self-Harm while inves-tigating the need for further education and support. Method: Four participants and one pilot study were purposively sampled from the Child Guidance Unit in Malta¡ª all recruited participants were the biological mothers of self-harming adolescents. Each participant was interviewed twice. Semi-structured interviews were conducted to collect the participants¡¯ ex-periences and subjective perspectives, and they were all digitally recorded. All necessary ethical authorisations were collected. Sample: Participants were parents of adolescents who deliberately self-harmed and were receiving care at the Child Guidance Unit. None of the mothers were living with the adolescents¡¯ biological father. Results: The super-ordinate themes identified were: Guardian¡¯s depths of despair, Guardians weathering the storm and Hope in the midst of despair. Themes flowed from the discovery of Deliber-ate Self-Harm and initial reactions to the hopes and skills developed to deal with their respective circumstances. Conclusion: The need to develop better understanding of the traumatisation and difficult scenarios experienced by legal guardians was identified while further support, education and man-agement of Deliberate Self-Harm have been identified. Limited qualitative research exists that has investigated the phenomenon of DSH, especially from the legal guardians¡¯ perspective. This research hopefully would assist involved legal guardians how to identify such phenomenon, how to educate themselves about it, and manage it successfully.</span>
</div>
%K Legal Guardians
%K Lived Experiences
%K Parents
%K Hermeneutics
%K Adolescents
%K Deliberate Self-Harm
%U http://www.oalib.com/paper/5302233