Colleges and universities must educate teachers on mental health issues to end the stigma surrounding troubled young people who harm themselves, a report has warned.

Truth Hurts, the new report of the national inquiry into self-harm among young people, says the promotion of positive attitudes towards mental health issues is crucial to colleges and universities if students are to stop hurting themselves.

The report, released yesterday, calls for further staff education and training on self-harm and for more campaigns aimed at removing the stigma of self-harm.

It said that widespread misunderstandings about self-harm among professionals and relatives were preventing young people from seeking and getting support.

Catherine McLoughlin, the chairwoman of the national inquiry, said: "Ironically, given how closely we scrutinise our young people, few of us have paid attention to the growth of self-harm as a way of many of them coping with, and expressing, their distress. Yet the most recent research suggests that, in the UK, one in 15 young people has self-harmed.

"Over and over again, the young people we heard from told us that their experience of asking for help often made their situation worse. Many of them have met with ridicule or hostility from the professionals they have turned to.

The inquiry focused on people aged 11 to 25, the age range among which rates of self-harm are highest - the onset starts at an average age of 12. The abuse can involve cutting, burning, scalding, breaking bones and ingesting toxic substances.

Ms McLoughlin said: "There is no shortage of things that need to be done. We need to know more about the prevalence of self-harm, across the UK as well as in particular population groups; we need to commission services where young people feel listened to and respected; we need much better evidence of what works, both in relation to preventing self-harm and in intervening once the behaviour is underway.

"We need to build a better understanding of why young people self-harm, and provide high-quality information for young people, their families and a whole range of agencies and professionals in contact with young people."

Sian Davies, a representative on the inquiry panel and the disabled students officer for The National Union of Students, welcomed the report and its recommendations.

Ms Davies said: "As the young person representative on this inquiry, and as someone who has personal experience of self-harm, I really hope this report and its recommendations will go some way to changing attitudes towards self-harm.

"It is only through positive mental health promotion that we can start to challenge stigmas around self-harm and help young people affected by it. If self-harm wasn't such a taboo subject, then maybe myself and many other people would have sought help earlier."