'Assisted self-harming' offered in UK hospitals

Patients who self-harm are being allowed to cut themselves in hospitals and mental health units as part of a ground-breaking approach to help them hurt themselves more safely.

Care plans are drawn up for patients, detailing the circumstances in which they are allowed to cut themselves. Patients must agree, for example, to seek help from nurses if their wounds require professional dressing. Other methods of so-called "assisted self-harm" involve giving patients sterile blades. Some nurses stay with patients as they self-harm.



Medical professionals who support the controversial method of treatment argue that those determined to self-harm should be helped to minimise the risk of infection from dirty blades. But others believe helping patients self-harm goes against their code of ethics.

Ian Hulatt, mental health adviser for the Royal College of Nursing, said: "It is a very complex and confusing issue, but then, so is the phenomenon of someone hurting themselves to feel better."