Tuesday 16 October 2018

NHS 'failing self-harming over-65s' despite suicide risk increasing with age

NHS 'failing self-harming over-65s' despite suicide risk increasing with age The NHS is not referring the vast majority of older people who self-harm to specialist psychiatric support, despite their chances of committing suicidesignificantly increasing, a study has found.

Researchers from the University of Manchester found that over-65s whose medical records showed reported self-harm were 20 times more likely to die from suicide in the following year – but just 12 per cent were referred to psychiatric specialists.

Over the entire 13 year follow up period, unnatural deaths – predominantly suicides – were 145 times higher among older people who self-harmed. The Independent

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