Please read through this document whilst you wait.
Information for People who have Self Harmed
You have the right to be treated with courtesy and respect, by the doctors and nurses in the Accident and Emergency department. You will be informed with information about your treatment including:
- Initial triage by A/E Nurse
- Assessment and plan of care by A/E staff depending on treatment required
If you have taken tablets you will usually have to wait for four hours after taking the tablets to have bloods taken. This will not delay the start of any necessary treatment or care
- Referral to Psychiatry team for further assessment
- If you have had alcohol or drugs you will be given time to recover from the effects of these before having assessment from a member of the psychiatry team
- You may need to stay in hospital
- If you have had alcohol or drugs staff may not feel you are well enough to make decisions about your wellbeing or medical treatment
- Staff may feel they have to act in your best interests to make sure you receive the care and treatment you need
Liaison Psychiatry Team
If you agree, a member of staff from the liaison psychiatry team will come and speak to you. This is an opportunity for you to discuss the circumstances that have caused you distress, and to see what action we can take to help.
We will:
- Assess your level of distress and offer you a detailed assessment. This may take an hour and will discuss different aspects of your life
- Provide you time to discuss your problems with one of the team, either alone, or with a relative or friend present if you prefer
We will then:
- Provide further advice to your medical team on your distress, and how best we can help
- Refer you to other services. This will include:
- Your GP
And may include:
- Crisis Team
- Community Mental Health Team
- Wirral Alcohol/Drugs Service
- Domestic Abuse
- Self Harm Service
Following an assessment by liaison psychiatry, you may be invited to return to an out patient appointment to speak to one of the team. This may be in the form of therapy from our team.
Helping yourself
Understanding:
- What was going on in your life when you first began to harm yourself
- How you feel just before you want to hurt yourself
- Whether you would find it useful to keep a ‘mood’ diary, writing down your feelings at different times
- Whether you are always in the same place or with a particular person
- If you have any bad memories or thoughts that you can’t tell anyone.
Distraction:
- Phoning a friend
- Writing down your feelings in a diary
- Listening to music, drawing or reading
- Going for a walk or a run, dancing, exercising or playing sport
Helping yourself
If the feelings persist:
- Finding a safe punching bag like some pillows
- Putting your hands into a bowl of ice cubes for a short time or rubbing ice on the part of your body you feel like injuring
- Using a red felt tip marker or lipstick to mark your body instead of cutting
- Putting a rubber band around your wrist and flicking it
- Putting sticking plasters on the parts of your body you want to injure.
Reproduced from: www.selfharm.org.uk
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Liaison Psychiatry Self Harm Service
Hours:
9:00 am–5:00 pm Monday –Friday
Telephone Numbers:
0151 678 5111 ext:2388
If there is no answer please leave a message. We will return your call as soon as possible.
We look forward to working with you.
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