Self-harm attempters' perception of community services and its implication on service provision.
Ming Leung, Chun-Bong Chow, Pak-Keung Patrick Ip and 1 others
PMID 31406869WHAT IT FOUND
Self-harm patients wanted phone contact with case nurses or social workers, but many did not know local services existed.
They asked for more nursing services, longer hours, shorter waits, and follow-up after discharge.
Key findings
01Eight participants had poor family relationships, eight were already followed by social workers, and six had support from friends.
02Six participants were unaware of the types of available community care or social services, and six were unaware of nearby care or social services.
03Participants valued regular meetings with designated nurses or social workers, but eight reported negative experiences such as long waiting times and non-empathetic attitudes.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for RNs
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What it does not show
Only 11 patients were interviewed, and only two were men, so the experiences cannot represent all self-harm patients. The study was done in one Hong Kong area with Chinese-speaking adults aged 18 or above who were conscious and emotionally stable in an emergency ward, so it may not apply to children, people with severe illness, or other languages. The semi-structured interview may have restricted what participants said. The analysis coded words and phrases and used co-occurrence and similarity matrices, which the authors say can cause misinterpretation and subjective bias.
Declared interests
No funding or conflict of interest declaration is included in the supplied text.
The easy way to misread this
Do not read these reports as evidence that community nursing or social services reduce repeat self-harm. The study asked patients about their experience and did not measure self-harm outcomes.