Hospitalisations for intentional self-harm

Understanding the scale of the problem of intentional self-harm in Australia is difficult because many cases of self-harm are unreported unless medical treatment is required.

• Only those patients admitted to hospital for intentional self-harm are currently routinely reported in national data sets.
• Presentations to hospital emergency departments relating to suicide attempts or intentional self-harm cannot be easily identified in the current national emergency department data collection.
• Data collections from general practitioners or mental health services do not routinely capture patients treated for intentional self-harm.
• Data are available from ambulance attendance records and national population surveys (see below).

Hospitalisations data for patients with intentional self-harm injuries includes those with and without suicidal intent. For further information see Technical notes.

For more data on hospitalisations for intentional self-harm, see: