Latest self-harm hospitalisation rates released

Young people aged 15 to 19 years old have the highest rates of intentional self-harm hospitalisations and females are twice more likely to be hospitalised than males.

Intentional Self-Harm Hospitalisations 2007 (Provisional), published online today by the Ministry of Health, showed that 2678 people were admitted to hospitals longer than 48 hours for intentional self-harm, compared with 3030 in 1996.

"This is consistent with the declining pattern over the past 11 years. Self-harm hospitalisation rates have dropped by 25.6 per cent for the total population and 40.1 percent for those aged 15 to 24 years old since 1996," Mental Health Director Dr David Chaplow said.

The report also showed that:

• In 2007, the ratio of female to male self-harm hospitalisations was 1.8 to 1.
• For males, the highest rate was seen amongst those in the 35-39 age group. For females, the highest rate was seen amongst those aged 15 to 19 years old.
• The rate of self-harm hospitalisations for Maori was 75.1 per 100,000 people, compared with 61.6 per 100,000 people for non-Maori.
• A number of suicide prevention initiatives are being implemented to achieve the various goals of the New Zealand Suicide Prevention Strategy and corresponding Action Plan. Some of these initiatives are aimed at:

improving the care and follow-up of people who have made a suicide attempt
increasing community understanding about depression and encouraging help-seeking, appropriate treatment and recovery, through the National Depression Initiative, and
addressing suicidal behaviour in Maori communities through the Kia Piki te Ora community development initiatives.
The intentional self-harm hospitalisation data will be published along with suicide death data in Suicide Facts 2007, the Ministry's annual publication of suicide data, by the end of this year.

View the report - Intentional Self-harm Hospitalisations 2007 (provisional)

ENDS

Questions and Answers

1. What is included in the report Intentional self-harm hospitalisations 2007?

The report Intentional self-harm hospitalisations 2007 includes hospital admissions where the patient stayed longer than 48 hours. Readmissions for a self-harm incident within two days of a previous admission for self-harm were not counted.

The data are presented by total population and according to sex, age and ethnicity. Some comparisons of trends since 1996 are described.

2. Why is some self-harm hospitalisation data excluded in Intentional self-harm hospitalisations 2007?

A filtering process has been used in this publication whereby those who were discharged from emergency departments in less than 48 hours for an intentional self-harm event were excluded from the data. Readmissions for intentional self-harm within two days of a previous admission for self-harm were also excluded because this is commonly due to a transfer between hospitals for the same intentional self-harm event.

This filtering process has been used because district health boards (DHBs) have different coding practices, which result in differences in the reporting of data. Using this filtering process allows for meaningful comparisons and more robust analysis across time. Removing inconsistent data in this way means that any patterns or trends that are found are much more likely to be due to changes in the population rather than changes in administrative procedures within or across DHBs.

3. Can the data in Intentional self-harm hospitalisations 2007 be compared with those in previous publications of suicide-related data?

The introduction of the filtering process means the data in Intentional self-harm hospitalisations 2007 cannot be compared with data provided in other Ministry of Health suicide data publications. The exception is for Suicide Facts: Deaths and intentional self-harm hospitalisations 2006, which used the same filtering process.

4. What is being done to improve the consistency of hospitalisation data collected by DHBs?

From 1 July 2009, it became mandatory for all DHBs to report every person who is discharged from emergency departments after receiving treatment for three hours or more. This will remove the major cause of inconsistency in the reporting of intentional self-harm data between different DHBs.

5. Will intentional self-harm hospitalisation data be published in hard copy?

Yes. Intentional self-harm hospitalisations 2007 has been published online now to speed up the release of this information to the public. But the data will also be published along with suicide death data in Suicide Facts 2007, the Ministry's annual publication of suicide data, by the end of this year.

6. What is being done to prevent self-harm and suicide?

There are multiple causes of suicidal behaviours and their prevention requires multiple interventions across a range of sectors. The New Zealand Suicide Prevention Strategy 2006-2016 (“the Strategy”) provides a framework to guide New Zealand’s suicide prevention activities, and the New Zealand Suicide Prevention Action Plan 2008-2012 (“the Action Plan”) describes how the goals of the Strategy will be achieved, when and by whom.

In line with the various goals of the Strategy and corresponding Action Plan, the following are some of the key suicide prevention initiatives currently underway:

• Improving the care and follow-up of people who have made a suicide attempt by supporting DHBs to implement suicide prevention guidelines for emergency departments and mental health services
• Building knowledge about effective interventions for people who have made a suicide attempt through two large randomised control trials - one focused on developing a culturally informed intervention specifically for M
  ori
• Increasing community understanding about depression and encouraging help-seeking, appropriate treatment and recovery, through the National Depression Initiative. This includes television advertising (the advertisements featuring John Kirwan), a helpline and two interactive websites (including the Lowdown, a youth-targeted website backed up with online and text-based support services)
• Reducing the risk of suicide for young people in Child, Youth and Family care through comprehensive risk screening and risk management planning (“the Towards Wellbeing Project”)
• Improving quality and coordination of suicide prevention activities within DHB regions through piloting suicide prevention coordinator positions in five DHBs (Auckland, Lakes, Counties Manukau, Wairarapa, and Nelson-Marlborough).
• Providing accessible and reliable information about safe and effective suicide prevention activities through Suicide Prevention Information New Zealand (SPINZ)
• Addressing suicidal behaviour in M
  ori communities through the Kia Piki te Ora community development initiatives
• Building resilience and enhancing connections for young people experiencing emotional distress or life-changing events with the Skylight youth resilience programme (“Travellers”)
• Building up the New Zealand research base through a comprehensive suicide prevention research programme with a focus on trialling and evaluating promising interventions.

7. Where can I go for more information about suicide prevention?

Information about suicide and its prevention are available on the websites of Suicide Prevention Information New Zealand (SPINZ) (http://www.spinz.org.nz) and the Ministry of Health (http://www.moh.govt.nz/suicideprevention).

8. What should I do if I’m concerned someone may be suicidal?

If you are concerned about someone who may be suicidal, intentionally harming themselves, or very distressed, you can approach the following services for advice:

• primary health care professional or general practitioner (GP)
• community mental health service
• M
  ori community health service
• counselling services
• helplines such as the Depression Helpline (0800 111 757), Lifeline (0800 111 777), Samaritans (0800 726 666) or Youthline (0800 376 633)
• web-based services: http://www.depression.org.nz and the Lowdown (for young people) http://www.thelowdown.co.nz
• In an emergency you should:
• ring 111 and ask for an ambulance, or
• contact the nearest hospital or psychiatric emergency service/mental health crisis assessment team
• remain with the person until appropriate support arrives
• remove any obvious means of suicide (guns, medication, cars, knives, rope, etc)

Note: There is evidence that some types of reporting of suicidal behaviour can result in an increase in suicides. Please refer to the Ministry of Health booklet Suicide and The Media: The Reporting and Portrayal of Suicide in the Media. A Resource (http://www.moh.govt.nz/suicideprevention).