Self-harm hospital presentations are on the rise among NSW's young people

Embargoed until: Publicly released: 2023-08-11 10:00

Australia; NSW

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***This media release contains information some readers may find distressing as it refers to data about mental health, suicide and self-harm. If you or anyone you know needs help, support is available now. Call Lifeline on 131 114 or Beyond Blue on 1300 22 4636. ***

The amount of young people presenting to NSW hospitals following self-harm has been steadily increasing over the past decade, according to Australian researchers. The team looked at emergency department data from 2012-2020, analysing the rate of self-harm presentations for young people aged 5-24 in the state over time. They say self-harm rates increased by 2.4% every three months in girls, and 1.6% every three months in boys. We need to better understand why this rate of increase has been sustained for so long to help prevent suicides in young people, they add.

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Research PLOS, Web page

Journal/
conference: PLOS ONE

Research:Paper

Organisation/s: The University of New South Wales, Western Sydney University

Funder: This study was funded by a National Health and Medical Research Council Investigator Grant [MT: GNT2007731]; DZG received a postdoctoral fellowship from the NHMRC Centre of Research Excellence in Suicide Prevention [GNT1152952]; and the costs of accessing the administrative data were funded by the Paul Ramsay Foundation. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.

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