Psycho-social intervention following attempted suicide: is there a case for better services?

Abstract

Deliberate self-harm services in the UK are frequently unplanned and delivered without a coherent view of their function. This is unfortunate because the evidence is that—contrary to popular misconception—psychiatric intervention after parasuicide is worthwhile. To improve this state of affairs, interventions need to be aimed at groups of patients with clearly identified needs, using techniques of known effectiveness which are delivered by specific deliberate self-harm teams. Health service planners have a duty: to develop such services; to monitor the phenomenon of deliberate self-harm in their locality; and to ensure inter-district and inter-agency collaboration in the evaluation of those services.