SELF HARM

Attitudes of staff towards people who self harm

Attitudes of staff towards people who self harm

Aims and Objectives

The aim of this paper is to examine the attitudes of staff towards people who self harm. Nurses, who comprise a foremost percentage of the A&E department workforce, have an significant function in noticing and supplying primary care for patients who self-harm, but numerous have contradictory mind-set in the direction of these patients. Sanders (2000), in a methodical reconsider of wellbeing expert mind-set and persevering insights on 'inappropriate' A&E attendances, described that nurses discovered this kind of work time-consuming and unrewarding, and contradictory mind-set may lead to a decrease in care.

Literature review

In 1997-1998, there were 25,120 episodes of clinic care for self-harm in UK; 57% of these were feminine (UK Institute of Health and Welfare, 2000). It is approximated that 1 in 10 teenagers, mostly females, enlist in DSH, but wellbeing professionals only glimpse the tilt of the iceberg, substantially less than this number (Royal College of Psychiatrists, 2003).

There is a powerful connection between DSH and suicide (Beck and Kovacs, 1979). In 1992 in New South Wales, for example, more than 3000 patients were accepted to clinic next episodes of DSH, out of an approximated 4600-9000 A&E productions for the difficulty (Sayer et al., 1996). It is the major risk component for future suicide, particularly for men. For demonstration, of patients accepted with DSH in Western UK in 1981-1997, 22% were subsequently either readmitted next another episode of DSH or past away by suicide with their next episode (Auditor General for Western UK, 2001 and Calof, 1994).

Identify positive attitudes of staff

In general, participants scored a few negative points to dislike the overall positive attitude towards self-harm patients. These findings are consistent with a recent study conducted by McCarthy and Gijbels (2010). The overall average score in this study is higher than that obtained in the work of Patterson. (2007a). This is a (slightly) negative evaluation of antipathy indicates a positive attitude towards self-harm patients were particularly positive element of the study, and themes identified reflect and complement the other studies identified in the literature ([Keogh et al., 2007], [Patterson et al. , 2007a], [Lamb et al., 2006], [Anderson, 1997] and [McLaughlin, 1994]). There is good evidence in this study is that attitudes towards self-harm behavior had a direct impact on the relationship with these patients, nurses and quality of care they provide (McDonough et al., 2004).

Despite the overall negative assessment of antipathy, dislike a positive response was found at the sentencing and the manipulation of self-harm behavior. Nurses have also been disappointing in this regard, patients often return to the hospital. Furthermore, the results of this study show that nurses do not feel adequately trained to respond, and many doubt the degree of support that may be available to them in this area. They also believe that self-harm is the responsibility of mental health services and, therefore, it will be really hard to shift the primary responsibility for responding to self-harm ...