Citation

Eaton L. Br. Med. J. BMJ 2010; 341(online): c3649.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2010, BMJ Publishing Group)

DOI

10.1136/bmj.c3649

PMID

20610511

Abstract

Junior hospital doctors, who lack appropriate training to deal with people who have self harmed or tried to take their own lives, are being left to cope with patients in busy accident and emergency departments—often at night and with no appropriate specialist support.

That is just one of the shortfalls in services provided for patients who are at the "limit of what they can emotionally endure," says a report from the Royal College of Psychiatrists.

The report includes a survey of 1500 college members, of whom fewer than half (49%) felt that they or their team were appropriately qualified to deal with patients who had self harmed. Meanwhile 46% of those responding said they had not received specific training on self harm. Of those working in accident and emergency departments, two thirds (n=85) of the respondents felt their training in psychosocial medicine was "inadequate."

Language: en