Self-harm, suicide and risk: helping people who self-harm. Final report of a working group.

The focus of this report is to enquire into and report on why people harm and kill themselves and to consider the role (including the limits of the role) that psychiatrists and other mental healthcare professionals play in their care and treatment. The experiences and views of people who harm themselves as well as those of their carers, health professionals and third-sector workers are central to this enquiry. As there is much policy and guidance on self-harm and suicide prevention, the report does not attempt to retrace this same ground but rather examines the evidence of practice on the ground, including the implementation of the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) guidelines on self-harm (National Collaborating Centre for Mental Health, 2004). This report is the second in the Royal College of Psychiatristsââ,¬â"¢ programme of work on the broad issue of risk. The College report Rethinking Risk to Others was published in July 2008 (Royal College of Psychiatrists, 2008a) and a new Working Group was set up under the chairmanship of John, Lord Alderdice, to examine risk, self-harm and suicide. This clinical issue is an integral part of the role of the psychiatrist in ensuring the good care and treatment of patients. Our central theme is that the needs, care, well-being and individual human dilemma of the person who harms themselves should be at the heart of what we as clinicians do. Public health policy has a vital role to play and psychiatrists must be involved and not leave these crucial political and managerial decisions to those who are not professionally equipped to appreciate the complexities of self-harm and suicide. But we must never forget that we are not just dealing with social phenomena but with people who are often at, and beyond the limit of what they can emotionally endure. Their aggressive acts towards themselves can be difficult to understand and frustrating to address, but this is precisely why psychiatrists need to be involved to bring clarity to the differing causes for the self-destructive ways in which people act and to assist in managing the problems for the people concerned, including family, friends and professional carers, who sometimes find themselves at the end of their tether in the face of such puzzling and destructive behaviour.

The iceberg of suicide and self-harm in Irish adolescents: a population-based study

PURPOSE Suicide is a leading cause of death among adolescents. Self-harm is the most important risk factor for suicide, yet the majority of self-harm does not come to the attention of health services. The purpose of this study was to establish the relative incidence of adolescent suicide, hospital-treated self-harm and self-harm in the community. METHODS Annual suicide rates were calculated for 15-17 year-old in the Cork and Kerry region in Ireland based on data from the Central Statistics Office. Rates of hospital-treated self-harm were collected by the Irish National Registry of Deliberate Self-Harm. Rates of self-harm in the community were assessed using a survey of 3,881 adolescents, the Child and Adolescent Self-harm in Europe study. RESULTS The annual suicide rate was 10/100,000. Suicide was six times more common among boys than girls. The annual incidence rate of hospital-treated self-harm was approximately 344/100,000, with the female rate almost twice the male rate. The rate of self-harm in the community was 5,551/100,000, and girls were almost four times more likely to report self-harm. For every boy who died by suicide, 16 presented to hospital with self-harm and 146 reported self-harm in the community. For every female suicide, 162 girls presented to hospital with self-harm and 3,296 reported self-harm. CONCLUSIONS Gender differences in relative rates of self-harm and suicide are very large, with boys who have harmed themselves at particularly high risk of suicide. Knowledge of the relative incidence of self-harm and suicide in adolescents can inform prevention programmes and services.

Impact Assessment 2005/06 (PDF 286 KB)

Section 75 analysis of Suicide and Self-harm in Northern Ireland