Preliminary evaluation of a multidisciplinary pathway for people who self-harm in acute inpatient mental health care

Inpatient mental health settings are required to provide biopsychosocial interventions to support service users who self-harm. This is important as self-harm has been associated with increased admissions and risk of suicide. A multidisciplinary self-harm pathway was developed in an acute inpatient mental health ward for adult women to help staff support patients who self-harm. The aim of this project was to evaluate the pathway in relation to service user distress, confidence in managing mental health, therapeutic alliances with the ward team and self-harm incidents on the ward. Data were collected from the record-keeping systems and from questionnaires completed before and after the pathway was introduced. The pathway was well received by service users and contributed to improvements in distress, confidence and to more effective management of self-harm. The self-harm pathway was found to be a useful framework within which to structure psychosocial interventions for self-harm and least restrictive practice.