Comparison of deliberate self-harm incidents attended by Helicopter Emergency Medical Services before and during the first wave of COVID-19 in the East of England.
Emerg Med J
; 38(11): 842-845, 2021 Nov.
Article
in English
| MEDLINE | ID: covidwho-1438100
ABSTRACT
INTRODUCTION:
There is significant interest in the mental health impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Helicopter Emergency Medical Services (HEMS) attend the most seriously unwell and injured patients in the community; their data therefore present an early opportunity to examine self-harm trends. The primary aim was to compare the incidence of deliberate self-harm incident (DSH-I) encounters by HEMS before and during the first wave of COVID-19.METHODS:
Data were obtained from all three East of England HEMS total number of activations and stand-downs, number of DSH-I activations and stand-downs, self-harm mechanism and number of 'severe' DSH-I patient encounters, in two 61-day periods 1 March to 30 April in 2019 (control) and 2020 (COVID-19). Severe DSH-I was defined as cardiac arrest and/or died prehospital. Proportions were compared with a Fisher's exact test.RESULTS:
There were a total of 1725 HEMS activations n=981 (control) and n=744 (COVID-19), a decrease of 24.2% during COVID-19. DSH-I patient encounters increased by 65.4% n=26 (control) and n=43 (COVID-19). The proportion of encounters that were DSH-I and severe DSH-I both significantly increased during COVID-19 p=0.002 and p=0.001, respectively. The absolute number of hangings and falls from height both approximately tripled during COVID-19, whereas the number of other mechanisms remained almost constant.CONCLUSION:
Despite a reduction in overall HEMS patient encounters, there were significant increases in both the proportion of DSH-Is and their severity attended by HEMS during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in the East of England.Keywords
Full text:
Available
Collection:
International databases
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Self-Injurious Behavior
/
Air Ambulances
/
COVID-19
Type of study:
Observational study
/
Prognostic study
Limits:
Humans
Country/Region as subject:
Europa
Language:
English
Journal:
Emerg Med J
Journal subject:
Emergency Medicine
Year:
2021
Document Type:
Article
Affiliation country:
Emermed-2020-210393
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