Suicide prevention for those who have self-harmed
Self-harm is the single biggest indicator of suicide risk and provides a crucial opportunity for intervention. People with a history of self-harm are at increased risk of suicide and self-harm is increasing in young people, particularly girls.
This page contains links to relevant research and examples of good practice from local areas in the programme to reduce self-harm.
- Prevalence of non-suicidal self-harm and service contact in England, 2000–14: repeated cross-sectional surveys of the general population (2019)
- Self-harm in midlife: analysis using data from the Multicentre Study of Self-harm in England (2019)
- Suicide following presentation to hospital for non-fatal self-harm in the Multicentre Study of Self-harm: a long-term follow-up study (2019)
- Incidence of suicide, hospital-presenting non-fatal self-harm, and community-occurring non-fatal self-harm in adolescents in England (the iceberg model of self-harm): a retrospective study (2018)
- Self-harm in a primary care cohort of older people: incidence, clinical management, and risk of suicide and other causes of death (2018)
- Suicide and all-cause mortality following routine hospital management of self-harm: Propensity score analysis using multicentre cohort data (2018)
- Incidence, clinical management, and mortality risk following self-harm among children and adolescents: cohort study in primary care (2017)
- Alcohol use and misuse, self-harm and subsequent mortality: an epidemiological and longitudinal study from the multicentre study of self-harm in England (2015)
- Does Clinical Management Improve Outcomes following Self-Harm? Results from the Multicentre Study of Self-Harm in England (2013)
- Service user perspectives on psychosocial assessment following self-harm and its impact on further help-seeking: A qualitative study (2013)
- Distinguishing adolescents who think about self-harm from those who engage in self-harm (2012)
- Randomised controlled trial of brief psychological intervention after deliberate self-poisoning (2001)
This project collects and analyses data on all self-harm presentations to emergency departments in the City of Manchester. Their work has had an impact on local service provision and risk management, and influenced national suicide prevention policies.
Below are publications about the project.
- Exploring characteristics and risk of repetition in people who fail to report previous hospital presentations for self-harm: A case-control study using data from The Manchester Self-Harm Project (2020)
- The significance of site of cut in self-harm in young people (2020)
- The Manchester self-harm project report (2013)
NICE quality standards describe high-priority areas for quality improvement in a defined care or service area. Each standard consists of a prioritised set of specific, concise and measurable statements, which draw on existing guidance. Below are the NICE guidelines and quality standard for self-harm.
The Services for self-harm toolkit has been developed by NCISH from the NICE Quality Standard on Self-Harm (QS34). In this toolkit, 8 quality statements are presented in a format that is intended to be used as a basis for self-assessment by mental health care providers. You can use the toolkit to record progress against each quality statement.
This service provides support for anyone in the area living with self-harm or suicidal thoughts.
Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent Self-harm and Recovery Service