Description

This study investigated communitybased health professionals' experiences of supporting young adult women 16 to 25 years of age with a history of child sexual abuse (CSA) during times when they had harmed or were at risk of harming themselves. The study's focus was on service provided in metropolitan Melbourne. Given the dearth of evidencebased practice responding to the young women, the study was exploratory in nature. Perceptions of the young women's support needs when they present with suicidal or selfharm behaviours were explored, as was current service provision targeted at meeting such needs at three levels of perceived intervention: chronic, high and acute risk. Chronic risk refers to times when the women are presenting with selfharm or suicidal ideation and behaviour that is observed to be pervasive and ongoing. This is distinct from acute risk, which, in the context of this study, is understood as a heightened level of risk requiring a focus on immediate safety and containment. At these times, it is considered that the women are no longer able to be held safely in their usual place of residence in the community. Whilst not initially defined in the design of the original research question, the identification of high risk emerged as an intermediary level between chronic and acute risk. High risk was described by interviewees as a stage of escalating distress that, without fairly immediate intervention, was likely to result in the women escalating further to the acute stage.