Children’s Unit
Hinchingbrooke Hospital
Huntingdon
Cambridgeshire
nik.johnson@nhs.net
01480 423154
11/01/2014
RE Changes in the Level of Paediatric In-Patient Admissions following Deliberate Self Harm
Dear Fellow Paediatric Colleagues,
In amongst the numerous requests you receive on a regular basis, can I please humbly ask that you
pay particular heed to this one as I believe it will be relevant to every single paediatric department in
the country. It is about a burgeoning problem that we believe is causing real difficulties throughout
the United Kingdom.
Over the last year our paediatric department has witnessed a significant increase of children
presenting acutely following acts of deliberate self harm. There has been a consequent large rise in
admissions to our paediatric ward which, in turn ,has placed significant strain on our inpatient
service in terms of both staffing and the availability of advice and appropriately trained personnel
with expertise in dealing with children with severe mental health problems within a paediatric
inpatient setting.
Discussions between us and our local CAMHS department have identified many potential factors
which could have led to the current problems. Our local difficulties appear to be reflected in a
national trend of increasing admissions for children with deliberate self-harm.
The rising trend in admissions, morbidity and mortality following acts of deliberate self –harm in
children has also been recognised by our CAMHS colleagues within the Royal College of Psychiatrists.
We do not have an obvious or easy explanationas to why young people are harming themselves
more often. As with all areas of the National Health Service there have been significant challenges to
the level of funding of psychiatric support for young people but this is unlikely to be the only
explanation for the trend.
Dr Nicola Herberholz is the RCPCH’s first National Grid Trainee (ST8) who is currently training for
dual CCT accreditation in both General Paediatrics and Paediatric Mental Health.
Dr Herberholz and I wish to support the ongoing reviews into the situation and collect appropriate
information from the point of view of paediatricians across the country. We believe that as
paediatricians, although we may not be the clinical lead for the treatment of their mental health
problems, we still have an important role in advocating for these children both prior to, and after,
admission as well as during the course of the acute admission with “deliberate self harm”.
We would be very grateful, if you could respond to our very simple and short 10 question survey to
help us with this important piece of work. It can be found at:
https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/QPV25BC
Your contribution is very much appreciated. It will help us to provide additional evidence to inform
the debate about mental health services provision for children and in time will help to ensure
improved support for all young people. As the Trainee Representative for the Paediatric Mental
Health Association, Dr Herberholz will make sure that our results will be fed back to the RCPCH but
also the RCPsych.
Please feel free to contact us to discuss the contents of the questionnaire. We would also appreciate
any responders contacting us directly if they have any additional information which they feel could
help us to get a more comprehensive picture of the current challenges from the perspective of a
paediatric department.
Thank You for taking the time to read this request and thank you in anticipation of completion of the
survey
Dr Nik Johnson
Consultant Paediatrician
Children’s Unit
Hinchingbrooke Hospital
Huntingdon
Cambridgeshire
nik.johnson@nhs.net
01480 423154
Dr Nicola Herberholz
SpR Paediatric Mental Health
Trainee Representative
Paediatric Mental Health Association
Dr Catherine Rands
Associate Specialist
Community Paediatrics