Mersey Care Professor co-authors guidance

Advice to support mental health professionals when caring for people after self-harm has been published in The British Journal of Psychiatry.

New guidance for self-harm: an opportunity not to be missed has been written by members of the 2022 National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) Guideline Committee. The authors include Professor Navneet Kapur, Honorary Consultant Psychiatrist at Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust, who was also the expert advisor for the self-harm guidelines.   

The article considers how the updated NICE self-harm guideline published last September can be applied and also the role of the wider system (primary care, emergency care, education and criminal justice settings).

The guidance emphasises the need for compassionate and non-judgemental care for people who have self-harmed and it recommends areas that would benefit from further research to identify effective interventions.

Professor Kapur, who is also a Professor of Psychiatry and Population Health at the University of Manchester and leads the suicide work programme of the National Confidential Inquiry into Suicide and Safety in Mental Health, explains more about the NICE self-harm guideline in this video.