Alarming self-harm rates among elderly
01-September-2010
By Tygar Taylor
Once associated with angry teens, self-harm is becoming an issue across all age brackets, with some cases of self-harm beginning at the age of 84, according to the Australian National Epidemiological Study of Self-Injury.
Results of the four year study of 12,000 people, showed occurrences were higher in young people aged 18-24 years-old, but still prominent in late adulthood with some cases of self-harm starting in men at 63 years of age and women at 60.
Currently about 13 per cent of Australia’s population is aged 65 years or older, and this is set to increase to about 30 per cent by 2051, with aged health care becoming a major concern.
Professor Brian Draper from the School of Psychiatry at the University of New South Wales made recommendations in the government’s suicide prevention report,
The Hidden Toll: Suicide in Australia, on the elderly issue.
He noted suicide reached a second peak in men over the age of 85, after the age group 25-44 years and the reasons behind the rise came down to a few simple factors.
“It’s a combination of declining health including chronic pain, in combination with social isolation, lack of social support, and evolving depression and hopelessness,” he said.
The self-harm study, launched by the University of Queensland and the Centre for Suicide Prevention Studies was able to estimate over half-a-million Australians – one in 40 – will deliberately harm themselves each year.
Cutting, scratching or banging their heads against hard surfaces were some of the major methods of self-abuse recorded.
Study co-author Professor Philip Hazell, of the
University of Sydney told Medical Observer he thought the findings of self-harm showed the seriousness of the problem and the need for traditional views to be abolished.
“Self-harming behaviour isn’t primarily about communicating to others, it’s about managing emotions that are out of control, it’s a signal of things not going well,” he said.
With only 16 per cent of self-injuries requiring medical attention and cases of children as young as five self-harming, Professor Hazell said clinicians need to look at the growing problem as an issue not always related to suicide.
“Think beyond the suicide risk to what may be driving this behaviour,” he said.
“Ask what support and coping strategies they have… and help them find more adaptive ways of managing situations.”
Overall, 2.6 per cent of respondents had self-harmed in the previous 12 months and 1.1 per cent in the previous four weeks.
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