Centre for Policy on Ageing



Assessment and management of self-harm in older adults attending accident and emergency — a comparative cross-sectional study
Author(s)	Richard Marriott, Judith Horrocks, Allan House
Journal title	International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, vol 18, no 7, July 2003
Pages	pp 645-652
Keywords	Suicide ; Accident & emergency depts ; Age groups [elderly] ; Adults ; Correlation ; Cross sectional surveys ; Leeds.
Annotation	Older people who undertake self-harm are at higher suicide risk than are younger patients. This cross-sectional study, set in two accident and emergency (A&E) departments in Leeds, compared 141 consecutive attendances due to self-harm among older patients (aged 55+) with a random sample of 125 attendances of younger people (aged 15-54) attending because of self-harm. Compared with the younger group, older patients were significantly more likely to receive psychosocial assessment from a mental health specialist. They were also much more likely than younger patients to be offered after-care. Hospitals will need to monitor accident and emergency and other records, if they are to check that their services are responding to the high risks seen in older patients. (RH).
Accession Number	CPA-030818202 A
Classmark	EV: LD6: BB: SD: 49: 3KB: 88B
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...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing.