Northern Ireland’s hospitals see 28 self-harm cases daily
Northern Ireland’s hospital emergency departments deal with, on average, 28 cases of selfharm daily, figures showed.
More than 50,000 cases have been dealt with in the past five years, BBC wrote.
One trust area dealt with 15 incidents involving children under the age of 10. Annually, about 1,000 child cases are seen by emergency departments.
Dr. Denise O’hagan of the Public Health Agency, said self-harm should always be taken seriously due to patients’ severe emotional distress.
“Self-harm is when a person harms themselves through injury or poisoning and it can take many different forms,” she said.
“It may be something which is kept hidden from others.
“For some people, self-harm is a way of coping with and communicating their distress, but for others it can be associated with a wish to end their lives.”
Self-harm can include everything from punching or hitting to cutting or burning.
The figures were released in response to a Freedom of Information request from BBC News NI to all five health trusts, and four of them covered the financial years from 2013 to 2018. The Northern Trust provided data from September 2013 to August 2018.
The number of teenage girls self-harming in Northern Ireland jumped by 66 percent in five years, in keeping with trends in the rest of the UK which show that instances among young women almost doubled during the past two decades.
However, the overall figure for those presenting with self-harm injuries dropped by 15 percent on the previous five-year figure.
Where were the most incidents?
With almost 15,000 cases, the South-eastern Trust had the highest number of self-harm reports.
At just over 5,000, the Northern Trust area had the lowest number of cases.
Girls aged 18 and under are almost twice as likely to self-harm as boys.
The Northern Trust dealt with 15 incidents involving under-10s, while there were 12 cases of people over 80.
In the Belfast and Western areas, there were larger numbers of women self-harming — the opposite was true within the Northern and South-eastern trusts.
The Southern Health Trust did not provide a gender breakdown of the figures.