Work Package 3 –Hospitals and community self-harm episode Routine Data

This work package aims to study the existing system of suicide and self-harm episode records in prisons, police stations, medico-legal officers (MLOs), presentations to hospitals and community health care facilities across Pakistan. We will conduct a mapping and linkage exercise of routinely collected data on self-harm and suicide over a period of 12 months to determine a pragmatic minimal dataset for self-harm and suicide.

The use of routine health care data is quite common in high-income countries to describe patient characteristics, risk factors identification and understanding variations in outcomes and practice across different settings. Data on suicide and self-harm will help in the understanding of factors influencing suicidal behaviour in Pakistan and can better inform public health policies on intervention and treatment as well as national suicide prevention strategies.

Objectives:

• Evaluation of the hospital, community and prison healthcare self-harm episode routine data across Pakistan.
• Qualitative interviews with different stakeholders including:
  a) Clinician/GP‟s views on the role of psychological treatment and its impact on self-harm and suicide prevention;

b) Interviews with policymakers to identify barriers/facilitators involved in policy development and implementation;

c) Interviews with medico-legal officers (MLOs) to explore self-harm and suicide case management, difficulties and barriers in reporting both and;

d) Religious leaders/scholars views about self-harm and suicide and their role in prevention.