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Showing results for tags 'Self harm/ suicide'.
Found 206 results
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News Article
Suicide inquest sparks warning on 'nine month wait' for treatment
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
The government has been called on to take action over the national “backlog” for a specialist mental health service after a woman died after a substantial wait to access treatment. Carole Mitchell, who died by suicide on 22 November 2019, waited almost seven months for a first appointment after being referred to Greater Manchester Mental Health Foundation Trust for psychology services. In a prevention of future deaths report, published earlier this month, coroner Alison Mutch said the inquest was told waits had since increased and “someone in Mrs Mitchell’s position today would be more likely to wait nine months”. The coroner added evidence heard suggested the delay experienced was “reflective of both the regional and national backlog for appointments”. The report has been sent to both the Department of Health and Social Care and Greater Manchester Health and Social Care Partnership. Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 1 March 2021 -
News ArticleAn average of 10 pre-teen children are admitted to hospital for self-harm each week, it has been revealed, in an apparent doubling of rates. Between 2019 and 2020 there were 508 recorded hospital admissions for self-injury, such as cutting oneself, within the 9-12 age group in the UK, compared to 221 between 2013 and 2014, suggesting rates have doubled in the past six years, according to an analysis of the data from BBC Radio 4’s File on 4 programme. “The increase in the data that you've looked at is in keeping with what we're finding from our research databases,” Keith Hawton CBE, a professor of psychiatry at the University of Oxford and consultant psychiatrist at Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust, told BBC File on 4. Prof Hawton, who is also principal investigator of the multicentre study of self-harm in England, said: “It's almost as though the problem is spreading down the age range somewhat. And I do think it is a concerning problem. And I do think it's important that it's recognised that self-harm can occur in relatively young children, which many people are surprised by." Read full story Source: The Independent, 16 February 2021
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News Article
Doctor: We're getting self-harming 10-year-olds in A&E
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
The pandemic has had a deep impact on children, who are arriving in A&E in greater numbers and at younger ages after self-harming or taking overdoses, writes Dr John Wright of Bradford Royal Infirmary. Children are a lost tribe in the pandemic. While they remain (for the most part) perplexingly immune to the health consequences of COVID-19, their lives and daily routines have been turned upside down. From surveys and interviews carried out for the Born in Bradford study, we know that they are anxious, isolated and bored, and we see the tip of this iceberg of mental ill health in the hospital. Children in mental health crisis used to be brought to A&E about twice a week. Since the summer it's been more like once or twice a day. Some as young as 10 have cut themselves, taken overdoses, or tried to asphyxiate themselves. There was even one child aged eight. Lockdown "massively exacerbates any pre-existing mental health issues - fears, anxieties, feelings of disconnection and isolation," says A&E consultant Dave Greenhorn. Read full story Source: BBC News, 2 February 2021 -
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 -
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
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News ArticleSelf-harm among the over-65s must receive greater focus because of the increased risks associated with the pandemic, a leading expert has said. Loneliness, bereavement and reluctance to access GPs can all be causes in older adults, said Prof Nav Kapur, who has produced guidelines on the subject. He warned that in over-65s, without the right help, self-harm can also be a predictor of later suicide attempts. The NHS's mental health director said it had expanded its community support. Claire Murdoch added that its services, including face-to-face appointments, had "continued for all who needed them", and 24/7 crisis lines had been established. Over-65s are hospitalised more than 5,000 times a year in England because of self-harm and self-poisoning, figures obtained from NHS Digital show. Read full story Source: BBC News, 3 June 2021
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News ArticleResearch has found that people who go to A&E following self-harm receive varying quality of care and this has a significant impact on what they experience subsequently. The study in BMJ Open, which was codesigned and co-authored with people who have lived experience of self-harm and mental health services, found negative experiences were common, and revealed stigmatising comments about injuries from some hospital staff. Some participants reported being refused medical care or an anaesthetic because they had harmed themselves. This had a direct impact on their risk of repeat self-harm and suicide risk, as well as their general mental health. According to the research, the participants who received supportive assessments with healthcare staff reported feeling better, less suicidal and were less likely to repeat self- harm. "This research highlights the importance of learning from the experiences of individuals to help improve care for people who have harmed themselves. We involved patients and carers throughout the entire process and this enabled us to gain a greater insight into what patients want after they present to hospital having harmed themselves", said Dr Leah Quinlivan. Read full story Source: University of Manchester, 25 May 2021
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EventuntilWe have known for several years that nurses are at higher risk of suicide than the general population and that nurses have more job-related problems recorded prior to death by suicide. What we have now learned about those job-related problems is troublesome at best with implications for risk managers, hospital executives, and all leaders in healthcare. The panel in the Patient Safety Association webinar will describe the issues and implications for advocacy and policy change necessary to right the wrongs leading to death by suicide amongst nurses through personal testimony and review of recent research findings. This webinar is sponsored by CHPSO. By the end of the session, the participants will be able to: Identify major issues stemming from the workplace that lead to death by suicide. Identify institutional, professional, and individual actions that can be taken to reduce risk. Describe the flaws in the current system that prevent accurately tracking and action-planning to reduce risks amongst nurses. Register
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Event
'DO NO HARM' documentary screening
Patient Safety Learning posted an event in Community Calendar
untilA screening of 'DO NO HARM', a 60-minute documentary that discusses physician burnout and suicide followed by a 60-minute panel discussion. Doctors take an oath to save lives, yet they are taking their own at an alarming rate, trapped in a toxic healthcare system that puts their patients' lives at risk. This film and panel discussion bring awareness to the topic of this epidemic that's been covered up for decades until now. Register -
Content ArticleThe Suicide Prevention National Transformation Programme aims to reduce the number of deaths by suicide in England by 10% by 2020/21. NHS England are investing funding in 37 local areas to establish or develop their multi-agency suicide prevention action plans to reduce suicide and self-harm. These plans cover three of the main priority areas identified in the National Suicide Prevention Strategy: Reducing risk in men. Prevention and response to self-harm. Improving acute mental health care. Find out more about the programme and useful resources from the link below.
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Content ArticleThis article examines the lasting impact of the tragic case of Daksha Emson, a 34-year old psychiatrist who took her own life and that of her baby daughter in an episode of postpartum psychosis. Daksha had a history of bipolar disorder and had attempted suicide before, and the inquiry into her death found that she received “significantly poorer standard of care than that which her own patients might have expected.” The authors highlight the impact of her story on the development in the UK of both specialist perinatal mental health services and specialised confidential services for health professionals, which remove some of the stigma attached to help-seeking.
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Content ArticleBoth the US Senate and the House of Representatives passed a bill to “improve the mental and behavioral health among health care providers” that President Biden signed on Friday. The Dr Lorna Breen Health Care Provider Protection Act is named after Lorna Breen, a New York City emergency medicine physician who died by suicide in April 2020, as Covid-19 raged across the city and the country. By all accounts a tireless worker, she was ultimately overwhelmed by what she experienced during those dark early days of the pandemic. Even before the coronavirus pandemic, health care institutions were struggling with maintaining the wellness of their workforces. Rates of burnout, depersonalisation, and emotional exhaustion were all significantly higher among healthcare workers than in the general population. Even more alarming, physicians and nurses complete acts of suicide at rates significantly higher than workers in other professions. The pandemic added fuel to this fire, as healthcare workers fought to provide care to legions of sick patients amid staffing and equipment shortages. Before the pandemic, approximately 40% of health care workers reported feeling burnt out. Now, between 60% and 75% of US healthcare workers report feeling emotionally drained and depressed. Clearly, something has to change. With the Breen bill, Congress hopes to halt this tragic wave of depression and burnout among health care workers by providing grants to hospitals and other health care organisations to “promote mental health and resiliency among health care providers.” Yet the solution the Breen bill proposes will not lead to meaningful change. Giving hospitals money to “promote wellness” will not magically heal healthcare workers. During the pandemic, hospitals across the country put up signs lauding their workers as heroes. Though hospital administrators may have given themselves pats on the back for such efforts, the signs meant little to those working without adequate personal protective equipment, or telling family members they could not visit dying loved ones, or wondering if they'd bring Covid home to their families and friends. The signs haven’t stopped scores of workers from leaving the healthcare field.
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Content ArticleThis guideline from the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) covers assessment, management and preventing recurrence for children, young people and adults who have self-harmed. It includes those with a mental health problem, neurodevelopmental disorder or learning disability and applies to all sectors that work with people who have self-harmed.
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Content ArticleWomen are four times as likely to die after childbirth in Britain as in Scandinavian countries, a study published in the BMJ from Diguisto et al. has found. The authors compared maternal mortality in eight countries (France, Italy, UK, Denmark, Finland, the Netherlands, Norway, and Slovakia) with enhanced surveillance systems. They found that UK had the second-highest death rate, with one in 10,000 mothers dying within six weeks of giving birth, only slightly less than in Slovakia, the worst performing. Norway has the lowest maternal death rates in Europe, at one in 37,000. In Denmark, the second-best performing country, one in 29,000 died. In-depth analyses of differences in the quality of care and health system performance at national levels are needed to reduce maternal mortality further by learning from best practices and each other. Cardiovascular diseases and mental health in women during and after pregnancy must be prioritised in all countries.
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Content ArticleThe National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE) defines psychosocial assessment following self-harm as ‘a comprehensive assessment including an evaluation of the person’s needs, safety considerations and vulnerabilities that is designed to identify those personal psychological and environmental (social) factors that might explain an act of self-harm’. NICE advises that all people who self-harm should be offered a psychosocial assessment at an early stage. Psychosocial assessment should include biological factors alongside psychological and socio-environmental aspects and is often termed ‘biopsychosocial assessment’. The aim of this document from the Centre for Suicide Research is to provide clinicians with guidance to help them conduct a comprehensive psychosocial assessment. To support this, associated signposting to supporting evidence and useful reading is included.
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Content ArticleThe MBRRACE-UK collaboration, led from Oxford Population Health's National Perinatal Epidemiology Unit (NPEU), has published the results of their latest UK Confidential Enquiry into Maternal Deaths and Morbidity. These annual rigorous reports are recognised as a gold standard in identifying key improvements needed for maternity services. The latest Saving Lives, Improving Mothers' Care analysis examines in detail the care of all women who died during, or up to one year after, pregnancy between 2018 and 2020 in the UK. This is the first report to include data that demonstrates the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on maternal deaths.
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Content ArticleIn this Guardian article, parents reveal their heart-wrenching struggles to access NHS services, which have sometimes been too late to help their children.
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Content ArticleIn this debate the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, Maria Caulfield MP, responds to an Urgent Question asking for a statement on abuse and deaths in secure mental health units. The Minister discusses the recent findings from investigations into the deaths of Christie Harnett, Nadia Sharif and Emily Moore who were in the care of the Tees, Esk & Wear Valleys NHS Foundation Trust, reflecting on these in the context of broader concerns highlighted by other recent patient safety scandals concerning NHS mental health services. This is followed by questions from MPs in the chamber and the Minister’s responses.
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Content ArticleThese reports outline the findings of separate investigations into the deaths of three teenage girls who were detained mental health patients in the care of Tees, Esk & Wear Valleys NHS Foundation Trust (TEWV). The reports uncover many systemic failings at West Lane Hospital in Middlesbrough, the secure mental health unit for children where Christie Harnett and Nadia Sharif, both 17 years old, died and where Emily Moore, 18, was placed prior to her death in Lanchester Road Hospital, Durham. The girls had been friends and spent time together at West Lane, and all three deaths were self-inflicted. The reports highlight a total of 119 care and service delivery problems at West Lane including ineffective management, reduced staffing, lack of leadership, aggressive handling of disciplinary problems, issues with succession of crisis management and failures to respond to concerns from patients and staff. Although West Lane was closed in 2019, it was reopened in May 2021 under the new name of Acklam Road Hospital. Subsequent Care Quality Commission (CQC) inspections and further deaths demonstrate that dangerous cultures and practices are still operating in the Trust's inpatient mental health units. In June, the Care Quality Commission (CQC) announced that they will be bringing criminal charges against TEWV in relation to Christie’s death. This document contains three separate investigation reports relating to Christie Harnett, Nadia Sharif and Emily Moore's individual cases.
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Content ArticleThe workforce is healthcare’s most precious resource. Hospitals and health systems are committed to supporting mental well-being and improving access to behavioural health screenings, referrals and treatment when the workforce needs it. This new American Hosptial Association guide, Suicide Prevention: Evidence-Informed Interventions for the Health Care Workforce, identifies three drivers of suicide: stigma, limited access to behavioural health resources and treatment, and job-related stressors. The guide offers a curated list of 12 evidence-informed interventions that hospitals and health systems can implement to reduce the risk of suicide among healthcare workers. Hospitals and health systems should choose the interventions and metrics that work for their organisation based on their own needs and available resources to customise a pathway to suicide prevention for their employees.
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Content Article
Risk of suicide after dementia diagnosis (3 October 2022)
Patient Safety Learning posted an article in Dementia
Patients with dementia may be at an increased suicide risk. Identifying groups at greatest risk of suicide would support targeted risk reduction efforts by clinical dementia services. In this study, Alothman et al. examine the association between a dementia diagnosis and suicide risk in the general population and to identify high-risk subgroups. They found that dementia was associated with increased risk of suicide in specific patient subgroups: those diagnosed before age 65 years (particularly in the 3-month postdiagnostic period), those in the first 3 months after diagnosis, and those with known psychiatric comorbidities. Given the current efforts to improve rates of dementia diagnosis, these findings emphasise the importance of concurrent implementation of suicide risk assessment for the identified high-risk groups. -
Content ArticleRisk assessments are a central component of mental health care. Few national studies have been done in the UK on risk assessment tools used in mental health services. In this study, Graney et al. aimed to examine which suicide risk assessment tools are in use in the UK; establish the views of clinicians, carers, and service users on the use of these tools; and identify how risk assessment tools have been used with mental health patients before suicide.
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Content ArticleThe purpose of the US Joint Commission's National Patient Safety Goals is to improve patient safety. The goals focus on problems in healthcare safety in the USA and how to solve them. They include identifying patients correctly, improving staff communication, use medicine safely, use alarms safely, prevent infection, identify patient safety risks and prevent mistakes in surgery.
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Content ArticleWith increasing awareness of the importance of good mental health worldwide, attention has focused on the need to overcome the negative perceptions and stigma historically attached to mental health issues. One group that this difficulty has been particularly visible for is men; it is well-established that significantly fewer men are diagnosed with or treated for mental health disorders compared to women, with suicide rates being three times higher in some countries in men than women. Why this crisis in men’s mental health exists is a question with complex answers. It requires a better understanding of how men interact with those around them, why they do (or don’t) access support, as well as other social and cultural factors that influence their health seeking behaviours. Much research has focused on the concept of “masculinity” and the need to question its impact on capacity for emotional communication, service engagement and help-seeking behaviour. Watch the recording of the World Health Organization (WHO) seminar, which took place in Copenhagen, on this complex topic.
