DERBY is a national hotspot for self-harm, with more than 800 incidents seen in the past year, a new study has shown.

Patients deliberately cut and burnt their skin, drank poison and misused drugs and alcohol.

According to the NHS, self-harm is a way of showing distress either because of emotional problems such as low self-esteem or because of traumatic events, such as bereavement or abuse.

There were 2,473 incidents across Derbyshire treated in hospital between August 2009 and July 2010, of which about a third – 819 – were in Derby.

 

he city had a rate of 332 incidents per 100,000 people, compared to 245 elsewhere in Derbyshire and a national average of 212.

As a result, Derby has been officially classified by the NHS as one of the areas in the country with the most significant problem.

This is despite the fact the number of incidents across the city and county fell slightly from 2,525 the previous year. Figures were not available for earlier years.

Catherine Ingram, chief executive of mental health charity Derbyshire Voice, said there was a link between mental illness and poverty, with some areas of Derby among the top 20 per cent most deprived nationally.

Other areas with self-harm problems include Portsmouth, Brighton, Southampton, Leicester, Hull, Bristol, Manchester, Newcastle and Leeds.

Ms Ingram said: "A lot of people with mental health problems live on benefits and are housed in cities.

"And although there are more people in cities than the countryside, there are also more people living isolated lives."

And she said the problem of self-harm was particularly common among teenagers.

She said: "As a forty-something, self-harm wasn't something I heard about when I was growing up but there seems to be a fashion for it now and it is more acceptable.

"I think certain celebrities who have displayed their scars quite openly may have something to do with that."

The new data, released by the NHS Information Centre, showed the problem was much more common among women. They accounted for 1,504, about three fifths, of the incidents in Derbyshire.

The actual number of patients would have been fewer because some people would have been seen multiple times.

Ms Ingram added: "Among women it is recognised as being a particular problem in the Asian community, which may be related to forced marriage or the isolation of not speaking English."

NHS Choices, which gives health care advice, says self-harm is when somebody damages or injures their body on purpose.

The organisation's official information states: "Self-harm is not usually an attempt at committing suicide (but does include suicide) but a way of expressing deep emotional feelings, such as low self-esteem."

Source: Derby Evening Telegraph - Kate Liptrot