Keeping Kids Healthy: Self-Injury in Children-Cutting, Burning & Secret Scars

Could your child be intentionally cutting or burning herself without your knowledge? It's called self-injury or self-mutilation, and you need to know about it, because the practice is on the rise. It's defined as a deliberate harming of your own body without a conscious attempt at suicide. It's amazingly common -- believe it or not, in a Massachusetts survey, almost a fifth of the students reported that they had injured themselves on purpose in the last year!

Join host Dr. Winnie King and meet a young woman who is struggling with this very problem - and hear from her parents about how they cope. We'll also talk about what to do if you suspect your own child might be hurting herself - how you can find out, and how you can stop it.

Guests:

Thea Rowan -- Age 15 * Rudd and Susan Rowan -- Parents of Thea * Barent (Barry) Walsh, PhD -- Executive Director, The Bridge of Central Massachusetts; Academic Positions: Adjunct Faculty, Boston College Graduate School of Social Work; Research Faculty, Simmons College Graduate School of Social Work; Co-Author: Self Mutilation: Theory, Research and Treatment; Other Published works: Treating Self-injury: A Practical Guide; Self-Mutilation, an essay in the Encyclopedia of Criminal and Deviant Behavior. * Alec L. Miller, PsyD -- Chief, Child and Adolescent Psychology; Director, Adolescent Depression and Suicide Program; Associate Director, Psychology Internship Training Program -- all at Montefiore Medical Center, New York City; Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Albert Einstein College of Medicine; Adjunct Clinical Supervisor, Ferkauf Graduate School of Psychology, Yeshiva University; Adjunct Training Faculty, Cognitive Therapy Center; Relevant Published works: "Feasibility of Dialectical Behavior Therapy for Para Suicidal Adolescent Inpatients," Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry .

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