HEALTH NEWS:A RELATIVELY high proportion of deliberate self-harm patients across the State's four HSE areas leave hospital emergency departments before receiving an assessment, according to the National Registry of Deliberate Self Harm (NRDSH).
The registry also shows a wide variation in after care following deliberate self-harm across the four HSE areas.
Since 2002, the NRDSH has recorded presentations of self- harm to general hospital emergency departments in the Republic.
Over the seven-year period running from 2002-2008, there were, on average, about 11,000 presentations of deliberate self- harm to hospitals involving 8,500 individuals.
The registry showed that after care following deliberate self-harm varied by self-harm method which partly reflected the lethality of the method involved and associated psychiatric problems.
There were relatively high levels of psychiatric admission among patients who had used more lethal self-harm methods such as attempted hanging (32 per cent) and attempted drowning (25 per cent).
However, of particular concern was the finding that a relatively high proportion of self-harm patients using highly lethal self-harm methods left the emergency department before receiving assessment.
These new findings from the registry were reported in the latest research bulletin of the National Suicide Research Foundation.
The foundation has highlighted the need for “further development of more uniform assessment procedures and evidence- based interventions specifically targeting patients who repeatedly engage in deliberate self- harm” in addition to increased resources and services for all deliberate self-harm patients.
It also recommends that minimum guidelines be implemented for the assessment of deliberate self-harm patients in line with the guidelines of the National Institute of Clinical Excellence (NICE) in the UK and in accordance with the priorities of Reach Out, the national strategy for action on suicide prevention.
Since 2004, the rates of deliberate self-harm decreased slightly among both men and women in Ireland, according to the National Registry.
But in 2007 and 2008, rates increased again among both men and women.
