Search the hub
Showing results for tags 'Self harm/ suicide'.
Found 205 results
-
News Article
USA: Covid infection increases risk of mental health disorders, study finds
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
Having Covid-19 puts people at a significantly increased chance of developing new mental health conditions, potentially adding to existing crises of suicide and overdoses, according to new research looking at millions of health records in the US over the course of a year. The long-term effects of having Covid are still being discovered, and among them is an increased chance of being diagnosed with mental health disorders. They include depression, anxiety, stress and an increased risk of substance use disorders, cognitive decline, and sleep problems – a marked difference from others who also endured the stress of the pandemic but weren’t diagnosed with the virus. “This is basically telling us that millions and millions of people in the US infected with Covid are developing mental health problems,” said Ziyad Al-Aly, chief of research and development at the VA St Louis Healthcare System and senior author of the paper. “That makes us a nation in distress.” The higher risk of mental health disorders, including suicidal ideation and opioid use, is particularly concerning, he said. “This is really almost a perfect storm that is brewing in front of our eyes – for another opioid epidemic two or three years down the road, for another suicide crisis two or three years down the road,” Al-Aly added. These unfolding crises are “quite a big concern”, said James Jackson, director of behavioural health at Vanderbilt University’s ICU Recovery Center, who was not involved with this study. He is also seeing patients whose previous conditions, including anxiety, depression and opioid use disorder, worsened during the pandemic. Read full story Source: The Guardian, 18 February 2022 -
News Article
Millions in England face ‘second pandemic’ of mental health issues
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
Millions of patients in England face dangerously long waits for mental health care unless ministers urgently draw up a recovery plan to tackle a “second pandemic” of depression, anxiety, psychosis and eating disorders, NHS leaders and doctors have warned. The Covid crisis has sparked a dramatic rise in the numbers of people experiencing mental health problems, with 1.6 million waiting for specialised treatment and another 8 million who cannot get on the waiting list but would benefit from support, the heads of the NHS Confederation and the Royal College of Psychiatrists have told the Guardian. In some parts of the country, specialist mental health services are so overwhelmed they are “bouncing back” even the most serious cases of patients at risk of suicide, self-harm and starvation to the GPs that referred them, prompting warnings from doctors that some patients will likely die as a result. “We are moving towards a new phase of needing to ‘live with’ coronavirus but for a worrying number of people, the virus is leaving a growing legacy of poor mental health that services are not equipped to deal with adequately at present,” said Matthew Taylor, the chief executive of the NHS Confederation, which represents the whole of the healthcare system in England. “With projections showing that 10 million people in England, including 1.5 million children and teenagers, will need new or additional support for their mental health over the next three to five years it is no wonder that health leaders have dubbed this the second pandemic. A national crisis of this scale deserves targeted and sustained attention from the government in the same way we have seen with the elective care backlog.” One family doctor in Hertfordshire, Dr David Turner, said he was so concerned about the situation that he had chosen to speak out publicly for the first time in his 25-year career. “I and many other GPs feel the issue has become critical and it is only a matter of time before a child dies,” he told the Guardian. Turner said access to child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS) was “never great pre-Covid” but was now “appalling”. The double whammy of a spike in demand and underinvestment in CAMHS was putting patients at risk, he added. Read full story Source: The Guardian, 21 February 2022 -
Content ArticleRebecca Romero was 15 years old and had a long history of self-harm and mental health problems. On 19 July 2017 she was found dead at her home, with a ligature around her neck. Rebecca had left Pebble Lodge psychiatric unit for a period of leave on 6 July 2017, but never returned to the unit after her leave. The original plan was to transfer her to an alternative unit, Riverside, but as there were no inpatient or day patient places available, a discharge meeting was held on 14 July where a community care package was put in place. She was under the community team at the time of her death, but had not been seen since her discharge.
-
News Article
Record levels of self-harm found at Derbyshire women’s prison
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
Inmates held in a women’s prison are making 1,000 calls a month to Samaritans amid record levels of self-harm, increased violence and low safety levels usually only seen in men’s facilities, a damning report has found. Nearly a third of women held at Foston Hall in Derbyshire, which holds 272 residents, told inspectors they felt unsafe, while the use of force in the prison has doubled over nearly three years and is the highest on the women’s prison’s estate. The women’s prison and youth offender institute is the first to be given a score of “poor” – the lowest – for the safety of female prisoners, since HM Inspectorate of Prisons developed its current framework more than a decade ago. Charlie Taylor, HM chief inspector of prisons, said the rating of “poor” for safety levels was a “rare and unexpected finding” in a women’s prison. Recorded levels of self-harm were also the highest in the women’s estate and two prisoners had taken their own lives since the last official inspection in February 2019, he said. “As an indicator of the level of distress, women were making 1,000 calls a month to Samaritans. The prison had no strategy to reduce self-harm or improve the care for those in crisis,” Taylor said. The response to women in crisis was too reactive, uncaring and often punitive, Taylor observed. “This, taken with other safety metrics and observation, meant it was no surprise that in our survey nearly a third of women told us they felt unsafe,” he said. The report also found that the majority of women who harmed themselves did not have enough support or activity and faced daily frustration in getting the help they needed. Read full story Source: The Guardian, 9 February 2022 -
News ArticleThe class B drug ketamine could help to treat people suffering from severe suicidal thoughts, a study has suggested. Researchers from the University of Montpellier in France said the sedative could save lives, as it appears to alleviate dark thoughts in patients admitted to hospital for their mental health. The finding was based on a controlled trial involving 156 adults with severe suicidal ideas, which ran from April 2015 to March 2019 in seven French teaching hospitals. The participants included people with bipolar disorder and major depressive disorder. However, patients with a history of schizophrenia were excluded from the study. Although the team found the side effects of ketamine were minor and had diminished by day four, they cautioned that more research was needed to examine its benefits. “Ketamine is a drug with a potential for abuse. Longer follow-up of larger samples will be necessary to examine benefits on suicidal behaviours and long term risks,” they wrote. Commenting on the study, Riccardo De Giorgi, a PhD student at the University of Oxford, said: "These findings indicate that ketamine is rapid, safe, and effective in the short term for acute care in hospitalised suicidal patients.” Read full story Source: The Independent, 4 February 2022 Ketamine for the acute treatment of severe suicidal ideation: double blind, randomised placebo controlled trial
-
Content ArticleIn this study, 156 participants were recruited and randomised to placebo (n=83) or ketamine (n=73), stratified by centre and diagnosis: bipolar, depressive, or other disorders. Two 40-minute intravenous infusions of ketamine (0.5 mg/kg) or placebo (saline) were administered at baseline and 24 hours, in addition to usual treatment. The primary outcome was the rate of patients in full suicidal remission at day 3, according to the scale for suicidal ideation total score ≤3. Analyses were conducted on an intention-to-treat basis. The findings indicate that ketamine is rapid, safe in the short term, and has persistent benefits for acute care in suicidal patients. Comorbid mental disorders appear to be important moderators. An analgesic effect on mental pain might explain the anti-suicidal effects of ketamine. There are also some useful and thought-provoking comments on this research, and a helpful visual aid.
-
News Article
Survey of Americans who attempted suicide finds many aren’t getting care
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
The number of people who try suicide has risen steadily in the U.S. But despite gains in health coverage, nearly half are not getting mental health treatment. Suicide attempts in the United States showed a “substantial and alarming increase” over the last decade, but one number remained the same, a new study has found: Year in and year out, about 40% of people who had recently tried suicide said they were not receiving mental health services. The study, published in JAMA Psychiatry, traces a rise in the incidence of suicide attempts, defined as “self-reported attempts to kill one’s self in the last 12 months,” from 2008 to 2019. During that period, the incidence rose to 564 in every 100,000 adults from 481. The researchers drew on data from 484,732 responses to the federal government’s annual National Survey on Drug Use and Health, which includes people who lack insurance and have little contact with the health care system. They found the largest increase in suicide attempts among women; young adults between 18 and 25; unmarried people; people with less education; and people who regularly use substances like alcohol or cannabis. Only one group, adults 50 to 64 years old, saw a significant decrease in suicide attempts during that time. Among the major findings was that there was no significant change in the use of mental health services by people who had tried suicide, despite the passage of the Affordable Care Act in 2010 and receding stigma around mental health care. Over the 11-year period, a steady rate of about 40%t of people who tried suicide in the previous year said they were not receiving mental health care, said Greg Rhee, an assistant professor of psychiatry at the Yale School of Medicine and one of the authors of the study. The Affordable Care Act, which took effect fully in 2014, required all health plans to cover mental health and substance abuse services, and also sharply reduced the number of uninsured people in the U.S. However, many respondents to the survey in the new report said the cost of mental health care was prohibitive; others said they were uncertain where to go for treatment or had no transportation. “It is a huge public health problem,” Dr. Rhee said. “We know that mental health care in the U.S. is really fragmented and complicated, and we also know not everybody has equal access to mental health care. So, it’s somewhat not surprising.” Read full story (paywalled) Source: New York Times,19 January 2022 -
News Article
NHS trust failings may have contributed to Bristol student’s death, inquest finds
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
A string of failings may have contributed to the death of a “deeply vulnerable” law student who killed herself while being treated in a psychiatric hospital in Bristol, an inquest jury has said. Zoë Wilson, 22, had informed staff she was hearing voices in her head telling her to kill herself and 30 minutes before she died was seen by a nurse through an observation hatch looking frightened and behaving oddly but nobody went into her room to check her. Speaking after the jury’s conclusions, Wilson’s family said that Avon and Wiltshire mental health partnership NHS trust (AWP) should face criminal charges over the case. AWP said it accepted it had fallen short in its care of Wilson. Zoë on the 17 June 2019 she told staff she was hearing voices telling her to kill herself and handed over an item that she could have used to harm herself with. She was not moved to an acute ward and other items that she could have used were not removed. At 1am on 19 June she was observed standing beside her bathroom door looking frightened but staff did not go to her. Thirty minutes later she was checked again and had harmed herself. Emergency services were called but she was pronounced dead. Giving evidence to Avon coroner’s court, the nurse who saw Wilson at 1am said he had only worked in the unit a handful of times and had not met Wilson before that night. The jury concluded that steps taken to keep her safe that night had been inadequate and also criticised communication and information sharing. In a statement, her family, said: “Zoë was a wonderful, bright, and deeply vulnerable young woman. She was on a low-risk ward even when she told staff that voices in her head were telling her to kill herself.” They called for AWP to face a criminal prosecution by the Care Quality Commission (CQC). “We will continue to fight for justice in her name,” they said. “She will never be forgotten.” Read full story Source: The Guardian, 27 January 2022 -
News ArticleA vulnerable woman judged to be at medium risk of self harm was on a mental-health ward that catered for low-risk patients, an inquest heard. Zoe Wilson, 22, died on the Larch Ward at Bristol's Callington Road Hospital in June 2019 after being found unconscious in her room at 01.30 BST. She had previously told staff that voices were telling her to kill herself, her inquest heard. Healthcare assistant Sarah Sharma found her and immediately called for help. Addressing a jury inquest at Avon Coroners' Court, she said that "patients admitted to Larch should have all been low risk". This meant they would "preferably" have hourly observations by staff and be able to take their medication without any issues. Many were ready to be discharged and they were there because something was holding them up, normally housing, she said. The experienced healthcare assistant said if the patient's risk increased they should be placed under "one to one" monitoring with a member of staff until they were moved to a more suitable unit. The inquest heard earlier that Ms Wilson had been judged to be medium risk and was placed on 30-minute observations on 18 June. Her risk level was re-assessed when she handed a belt to staff and informed them voices were telling her to kill herself. Ms Sharma told the court that she was on her first overnight shift in two and a half weeks that night, and was informed in a handover that Ms Wilson was at risk of self-harming. Having never met Ms Wilson - who had schizophrenia - she queried what kind of self-harm the patient was at risk of but said the nurse performing the handover told her he "didn't know". Ms Sharma told the inquest she was unaware of the belt incident or that Ms Wilson had not been sleeping well and had requested medication to calm her down. Read full story Source: BBC News, 24 January 2022
-
News Article
GPs should regularly review self-harm patients, says draft NICE guidance
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
GPs should regularly review self-harm patients and offer a specific CBT intervention, according to a consultation on the first new guidance for self-harm to be drawn up in 11 years. The new draft guidance emphasises the importance of referring patients to specialist mental health services, but stresses that, for patients who are treated in primary care, continuity is crucial. If someone who has self-harmed is being treated in primary care, GPs must ensure regular follow-up appointments and reviews of self-harm behaviour, as well as a medicines review, the draft guideline say. They must also provide care for coexisting mental health issues, including referral to mental health services where appropriate, as well as information, social care, voluntary and non-NHS sector support and self-help resources. The guidance says that referring people to mental health services would ‘ensure people are in the most appropriate setting’. However, the committee agreed that ‘if people are being cared for in primary care following an episode of self-harm, there should be continuity of care and regular reviews of factors relating to their self-harm to ensure that the person who has self-harmed feels supported and engaged with services’. The draft guidance, out for consultation until 1 March, also says ambulance staff should suggest self-harming patients see their GP to maximise the chance of engagement with services. It says: ‘When attending a person who has self-harmed but who does not need urgent physical care, ambulance staff and paramedics should discuss with the person (and any relevant services) if it is possible for the person to be assessed or treated by an appropriate alternative service, such as a specialist mental health service or their GP.’ It notes that ‘ambulance staff often felt that the emergency department was not the preferred place that the person who had self-harmed wanted to be taken. They agreed that referral to alternative services could facilitate the person’s engagement with services’. Read full story Source: Pulse, 18 January 2022 -
News ArticleA nurse who was struck off for refusing to admit a woman to a mental health unit before she killed herself said 'leave her, she will faint before she dies' before he kicked her out of the facility. Paddy McKee allegedly made the comment as Sally Mays, 22 - who had mental health issues - tried to strangle herself when she was refused admission. Ms Mays killed herself at home in Hull in July 2014 after being refused a place at Miranda House in Hull by McKee and another nurse. Despite her being a suicide risk, they would not give her a place at the hospital after a 14-minute assessment. Her parents Angela and Andy have fought for several years for improvements to be made and lessons to be learnt from her death. McKee was this month struck off following a Fitness to Practice hearing conducted by the Nursing and Midwifery Council. The report by the NMC was this week published and condemned McKee, saying 'he treated her in a way that lacked basic kindness and compassion'. The NMC found his actions to refuse Ms Mays' admission had contributed to her death. Read full story Source: Mail Online, 12 January 2022
-
Content Article15 year-old Mary Bush had a diagnosis of anxiety disorder, post-traumatic stress syndrome and suicidal ideation, and on 6 August 2020, Mary took her own life. In her report, the Coroner raises a number of concerns and highlights action that needs to be taken to prevent future deaths.
-
News ArticleAround 80% of adolescents who died by suicide or who had self-harmed had consulted with their GP or a practice nurse in the preceding year, shows new research. The large study of 10 to 19-year-olds between 2003 and 2018, published in the Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, also puts forward a series of proposals to deal with the problem. The study, funded by the NIHR Greater Manchester Patient Safety Translational Research Centre (NIHR GM PSTRC), a partnership between The University of Manchester and The Northern Care Alliance NHS Foundation Trust (NCA). It showed that 85% who later took their own lives consulted with their GP or a practice nurse at least once in the preceding year; the equivalent figure was 75% for those youngsters who harmed themselves non-fatally. Lower than expected rates of diagnosis of psychiatric illness, around a third in both groups, were probably down to a lack of contact with mental health services, rather than an absence of psychiatric illness, argue the research team. Depression was by far the commonest of the examined conditions among both groups, accounting for over 54% of all recorded diagnoses. Also, while suicide was more common in boys, non-fatal self-harm was more common in girls. Two-thirds of adolescents who died by suicide had a history of non-fatal self-harm. And while self-harm risk rose incrementally with increasing levels of deprivation, suicide risk did not. Read full story Source: The University of Manchester, 7 December 2021
-
Content Article
This blog explores men's mental health – how men are reluctant to seek support when they are struggling, why the suicide rate is so high, what initiatives exist to encourage men to seek help and what more could be done. -
News ArticleSuicidal thoughts are three times as common in those living with a spinal cord injury in the UK, according to new research And yet, it’s estimated that only one third of people living with a spinal cord injury (SCI) are getting access to mental health support, and of those, 68% do not feel that support services available are able to meet their needs. These alarming statistics are taken from a new report, ‘It’s not just physical’ which was presented to parliament yesterday (17 November). The report shines a light on the mental health problems faced by people with spinal cord injuries in the UK today. It's calling on the NHS, government and other health policy makers to provide better mental health support services for people with spinal cord injuries – and their unpaid carers – as a matter of urgency. Nik Hartley, Spinal Injuries Association CEO said: “We are at risk of failing thousands of people in the UK living with a spinal cord injury. Our new report highlights that psychological damage caused by a SCI is, at best, considered as an afterthought, and at worst, completely ignored by the medical profession. We need urgent action and for services to be sufficiently specialised to support the thousands of people living with this type of injury before it is too late.” Read full story Source: Spinal Injuries Association, 17 November 2021
-
Content Article
This report was undertaken by the Spinal Injuries Association (SIA), the University of Reading and the University of Buckingham to examine the mental health of spinal cord injured (SCI) people, and to identify gaps in mental health support for them and their unpaid carers in the UK. More than 300 members shared their views on the mental health support they receive, with a focus on depression and post-traumatic stress disorder. A further 16 unpaid carers - partners and parents - took part in interviews to gain a full picture of the services received. -
News Article
Patient kills herself on Glasgow hospital ward after 'failure in communication'
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
A woman took her own life on a ward after her move to a mental health hospital was not facilitated. Anne Clelland was found unconscious in the toilet of her room in Glasgow's Queen Elizabeth University Hospital and later died of a brain injury. Anne - who had a history of self-harm - was admitted following an overdose. She was due to be moved to a psychiatric hospital three days before her death but this did not take place because of a "failure of communication." NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde pled guilty today to failing to conduct their undertaking in a way that a person would not be exposed to risks to their health and safety. Glasgow Sheriff Court heard Anne was admitted to Ward 5A at the hospital after overdosing on 7 May 2015. A specialist met with Ann on 11 and 12 May with a plan put in place for her to be transferred to Leverndale hospital once she was medically fit. A psychiatry team was to be contacted at that time for a further review to facilitate the transfer. Prosecutor Catriona Dow said: “There was no suggestion at this time that despite her ongoing treatment following her suicide attempt, that she was at risk of suicide and required special requirements such as the removal of her possessions and enhanced observations such as constant observations.” “There appears there was a breakdown in communication regarding the intention of the psychiatrist that Anne would be transferred that evening due to her assessed risk of self-harm.” Other witnesses recalled a plan for a transfer to Leverndale but it was understood that until a bed was to become available, she would be able to remain at Ward 5A. Other staff appeared not to have been aware of the assessed risk of self-harm and her transfer to Leverndale that evening. Read full story Source: Glasgow Live, 8 November 2021 -
Content ArticleOn 11 June 2019 an investigation into the death of Brooke Martin aged 19 started. Brooke was a patient at Isla House, Chadwick Lodge, Milton Keynes and was detained under the Mental Health Act. She had been diagnosed with Emotionally Unstable Personality Disorder and Autism Spectrum Disorder. Brooke was found hanging in her room and was taken to Milton Keynes University Hospital where she died on 11 June 2019.
-
News Article
Mental health unit death raises coroner fears
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
A coroner has raised concerns about how a family was allowed to bring a restricted item that contributed to a man's death into a mental health unit. Joshua Sahota, 25, died as a result of asphyxia and psychosis in Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, on 9 September 2019. Suffolk coroner Nigel Parsley said Mr Sahota's relatives were not told the item they brought in when visiting was on a restricted list. The NHS trust which runs the unit said it had improved its internal processes. Mr Sahota, from Kennett in Cambridgeshire, was taken to the Wedgewood Unit on the West Suffolk Hospital site three weeks before his death as his mental health had declined. Insufficient staffing levels contributed to his death, an inquest jury at Suffolk Coroner's Court concluded. Other factors included insufficient observations and one-to-one processes, no clear and concise risk assessments, being slow to develop a care plan and the absence of a documented crisis plan. Read full story Source: BBC News, 21 September 2021 -
Content Article
Prevention of Future Deaths report – Joshua Sahota
Patient Safety Learning posted an article in Coroner reports
Joshua Sahota died as a result of asphyxia and psychosis while a patient in Northgate Ward at Wedgewood House, operated and staffed by Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust. In his report, the Coroner raised patient safety concerns regarding how the trust communicates to relatives which items are restricted and not allowed to be brought into the ward. He raised concerns that family and friends of current inpatients may still inadvertently take a restricted item onto the ward unless changes are put in place. -
News Article
Sharp rise in acute medical beds occupied by children with nowhere else to go
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
A third of all children’s acute hospital beds in parts of England are being occupied by vulnerable children who do not need acute medical care but have nowhere else to go, safeguarding experts have warned. Doctors say they feel like very expensive “babysitters” for vulnerable children, many of whom are in care but whose placements have broken down because of their violent and self-harming behaviour. Others have severe neurodevelopmental or eating disorders and need specialist treatment not available on ordinary children’s wards, where they get “stuck”, sometimes for months at a time. Paediatricians told the Guardian they have had to deal with vulnerable children who were not physically ill but displayed such challenging behaviour that they could not be looked after in children’s homes. “It is estimated that roughly a third of acute hospital beds at the moment are full of these vulnerable young people, many who are subject to child protection plans, or they are already children in care, living in a residential placement that’s falling apart,” said Dr Emilia Wawrzkowicz, a paediatric consultant who is the assistant officer for child protection at the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health (RCPCH). Though many of these children are in extreme distress, they often have no diagnosable mental illness and do not qualify for a psychiatric “tier four” bed. “Some children have such extreme emotional and behavioural issues or are at risk of exploitation that they can’t get back to their residential placements or their foster parents. They can’t obviously go back to their homes, and we’ve got to keep them safe. So they sit in the hospital because there’s nowhere else to go. There are children sitting on our wards for months,” said Wawrzkowicz. Charlotte Ramsden, president of the Association of Director of Children’s Services, warned that a failure to increase the suitable provision for traumatised children would lead to more child suicides and more children ending up in custody after harming others. Read full story Source: The Guardian, 13 September 2021 -
News ArticleThe father of a man who took his own life said the mental health unit where he was staying "failed him completely". Joshua Sahota, 25, died as a result of asphyxia and psychosis at the Wedgewood Unit in Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, on 9 September 2019. Insufficient staffing levels at the unit contributed to his death, an inquest jury found. Mr Sahota, from Kennett in Cambridgeshire, was taken to the unit three weeks before his death as his mental health had declined. There was no psychologist in post and the jury at Suffolk Coroner's Court recorded this as having contributed to his death. It also found that a plastic bag which contributed to his death was on a restricted items list, but this was "unclear" and there were "inconsistencies of understanding this" by staff and visitors. Other factors that the jury said contributed to his death included insufficient observations and one-to-one processes, no clear and concise risk assessments, being slow to develop a care plan and the absence of a documented crisis plan. Read full story Source: BBC News, 10 September 2021
-
Content ArticleThe rise in opioid overdoses warrants a review of the symptoms of akathisia writes Russell Copelan.
-
Content ArticleThis is the executive summary of the independent investigation report into the care and treatment of 16 year-old David, who committed suicide in October 2016. At the time of his death David was receiving care and treatment from North West Boroughs Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust.
-
Content Article
Prevention of Future Deaths report – Azra Hussain
Mark Hughes posted an article in Coroner reports
Azra Hussain died by suicide while a patient at Mary Seacole House, operated and staffed by Birmingham and Solihull Mental Health Foundation Trust. In their report, the Coroner raised patient safety concerns relating to her family being unable to participate in a multidisciplinary team meeting prior to her death due to Covid-19 visiting restrictions.
