Chaired by Lord Alderdice and overseen by the Policy Unit, the
Risk to Self Working Group has produced a College Report
‘
Self-harm,
Suicide and Risk: helping people who self-harm’ which was
launched in June 2010.
The report had the aims of improving
awareness about the non-psychiatric causes of self-harm, of
changing service staff attitudes, and influencing commissioners and
the NHS in service provision. The report also investigates training
needs and barriers to the effective implementation of existing
policy.
The report was developed by a
Working Group and informed by a survey of psychiatrists' experience
of self harm care, as well as evidence sessions held with experts
in the field.
The report represents the second
project on risk following the College report on risk to others
(Rethinking
Risk to Others CR150).
We launched the report successfully
in Parliament on the 23 of June. Its publication was widely
documented in the media, such as BBC
News and the British
Medical Journal.
The results from the members’ survey
highlighted some important issues in the assessment, management and
care of self-harm. From this data the working group drew up a
number of recommendations aimed at improving services for people
who self-harm. These set out what the government, NHS Trusts and
commissioners, professional bodies and the third sector ought to be
aiming for to improve the care for people at risk of suicide and
self harming behavior. The main areas the recommendations focused
on include training, research funding, public health strategies and
cooperation of organisations.
In more detail, the recommendations
cover a wide range of issues including:
· The need for
public health strategy to cover self harm and for the suicide
prevention strategy to remain a priority in all nations of the
UK
· NHS services,
particularly in A & E, to be managed in a way which ensures
that people who have self harmed or tried to kill themselves have
proper access to care and treatment by fully trained clinical staff
and that the NICE Guideline on Self Harm is implemented
· A change to the
culture of NHS services to address self harm so that staff who
encounter people who self-harm are trained and supported in this
difficult work
· Greater
recognition by the statutory sector of, and support for, the role
of the third sector bodies such as the Samaritans and SANE in
assisting those who are involved with self harm or are suicidal
· Psychiatrists,
including liaison psychiatrists, need to have a full role in
helping people who self-harm
· In contrast to
suicide, research on self-harm has been neglected and overlooked.
Funding needs to be allocated to research on the causes and
treatments of self harm. Without this people who self harm will
continue not to receive the best care, whilst clinicians will still
lack guidance as to what works and for whom.
Following the report’s publication
the Parliament’s All Party Parliamentary Group on Suicide was
renamed to APPG on Suicide Prevention and Self-Harm. Furthermore,
Bridgend MP and chair of the above mentioned APPG Madeleine Moon
has asked a number of questions in Parliament to the Secretary of
State for Health concerning the implementation of some of the
report’s recommendations. The Policy Unit has also launched an
Implementation Group (see link).
A position
statement summarising the report’s findings was also produced
and published jointly.
For more information regarding this
project, please contact Masood
Khan