Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

Assessing young people who deliberately harm themselves

2000; Cambridge University Press; Volume: 176; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1192/bjp.176.2.126

1472-1465

Jane Hurry, Pamela Storey,

Child and Adolescent Psychosocial and Emotional Development

Many young people who harm themselves have chronic mental health or social problems or are at risk of future self-harm or even suicide. The accident and emergency (A&E) clinic is an important gateway to treatment.To describe the psychosocial assessment of 12- to 24-year-old patients attending A&E clinics following deliberate self-harm (DSH) and to identify features of service management and provision which maximise specialist assessment.A postal questionnaire was sent to a sample of one in three A&E departments in England. In a representative sample of 18 of these hospitals, staff were interviewed and 50 case notes per hospital were examined.Psychosocial assessment by non-specialist doctors in A&E departments tended to be of variable quality, focused on short-term risk. Around 43% of patients aged 12-24 were assessed by a specialist; specialist assessment was associated with high admission rates and the presence of on-site psychiatric departments and DSH teams.Young DSH patients at risk often go unidentified; as a result their psychological problems may not be treated. Hospitals are frequently unaware of the proportion of patients discharged without adequate assessment.