SHIELD has five main aims that should help us to improve the service offered to people who have self-harmed who come to our Emergency Departments.

1. Better understanding of what is happening locally

To help us to build a better picture of what is happening locally with self-harm, we are recording the number of people and types of self-harm that we see in the Emergency Departments of St Thomas’ and King’s College Hospitals. This anonymous information is an important public health resource and will help us to measure developments in our service.

2. Better education and training for staff

All staff who are involved with the care of people who self-harm should be fully trained in the how to offer the best services. One of our aims is to ensure that all staff get regular, consistent and high quality training tailored to their own education needs.

3. Better communication all round 

Good communication is essential if the best service is to be offered to people. We want to improve communication between patients and the staff they deal with; between Emergency Department staff and staff in mental health liaison teams; and between hospital staff and primary care staff (such as GPs).

4. Better plans for helping people not to repeat self-harm

Studies have shown that a substantial proportion of people who self-harm will do so again in the future. SHIELD plans a series of initiatives to try and reduce this. These will include better assessments for people in the Emergency Department and better support for people once they have left the hospital. We want to ensure that the best kinds of interventions from all over the world are available to people living in our local area.

5. Better access to psychological therapies

Certain kinds of psychological talking therapies are very good at trying to help people both with the individual challenges they face and to reduce the likelihood of repetition. These therapies can be available in a range of different places including hospitals, clinics, primary care and voluntary sector organisations. At SHIELD we want to ensure that people local to us have access to them.