In 2008 Professor Graham Martin conducted The Australian National Epidemiological Study of Self-Injury. Hidden behind the phone, a sample of 12,006 people spoke frankly about a practice that had often taken over their lives. Peaking in teenagers and young adults, the alarming results of the study showed that 1.1 per cent of the Australian population in the four weeks before the phone conversation and 8 per cent of the population in their lifetime, had engaged in deliberate self-injury. The Silent Epidemic delves into the scientific and socially misunderstood world of self-injury, shedding a light on the groundbreaking scientific research that could help the 200,000 Australians who are currently engaging in self-injury behaviour. With their international counterparts, the Australian scientific community has been galvanised in their quest for understanding by statistics that indicate that there is an unrecognised epidemic of self-injury behaviour in young people in the Western world.

Running Time: 60 mins

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