Emergency Hospital Admissions for Intentional Self-Harm (all ages)

Mental health and well-being is an important aspect of public health. Self-harm is an expression of personal distress. There is a significant and persistent risk of future suicide following an episode of self-harm.

This data shows self-harm events severe enough to warrant hospital admission. Almost all hospital admissions for intentional self-harm are emergency admissions. Although hospital admissions data is being used as a proxy for the prevalence of severe self-harm, this is only the tip of the iceberg in relation to the health and well-being burden of self-harm.

Directly Age-Standardised Rates (DASR) are shown in the data (where numbers are sufficient) so that rates can be directly compared between areas. The DASR calculation applies Age-specific rates to a Standard European population to cancel out possible effects on crude rates due to different age structures among populations, thus enabling direct comparisons of rates.

Source: Office for Health Improvement and Disparities (OHID), Public Health Outcomes Framework (PHOF) indicator 2.10ii (21001-C14b). This data is updated annually.