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Research letter
Understanding prehospital care for self-harm: views and experiences of Yorkshire Ambulance Service clinicians
  1. Daniel Romeu1,2,
  2. Elspeth Guthrie1,
  3. Suzanne M Mason3
  1. 1 Leeds Institute of Health Sciences, University of Leeds, Leeds, UK
  2. 2 Department of Liaison Psychiatry, Leeds and York Partnership NHS Foundation Trust, Leeds, UK
  3. 3 School of Health and Related Research, The University of Sheffield, Sheffield, UK
  1. Correspondence to Dr Daniel Romeu, Leeds Institute of Health Sciences, University of Leeds, Leeds, West Yorkshire, UK; danielromeu{at}doctors.org.uk

http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/emermed-2022-212983

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    Self-harm is one of the most common reasons for people to present to EDs.1 Ambulance clinicians are often the first professionals involved in their care. This encounter affects immediate actions and long-term outcomes by influencing future help-seeking behaviour.2 Little is known about prehospital care for people who self-harm,3 although assessing and managing this group represents a unique challenge for ambulance clinicians.4 This study aims to explore the views and experiences of Yorkshire Ambulance Service (YAS) clinicians of prehospital care for self-harm.

    This is a cross-sectional questionnaire using an online platform (Online Surveys, www.onlinesurveys.ac.uk; Jisc). The questionnaire was designed by the research team and piloted by four YAS academic paramedics (see online supplemental file 1). It was open from 5 to 30 September 2022 and shared with ambulance clinicians (clinicians working on ambulances) employed by YAS using social media and email bulletins. Multiple-choice answers were analysed using descriptive statistics; free-text responses were analysed independently by two researchers (DR, …

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    Footnotes

    • Handling editor Aileen McCabe

    • Twitter @DanielJRomeu

    • Contributors All authors contributed to the focus of this study. DR designed the survey and obtained ethical approval. DR and EG analysed the data. DR drafted the initial manuscript with guidance and feedback from EG and SMM. All authors approved the final manuscript.

    • Funding The authors have not declared a specific grant for this research from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors.

    • Competing interests None declared.

    • Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; internally peer reviewed.

    • Supplemental material This content has been supplied by the author(s). It has not been vetted by BMJ Publishing Group Limited (BMJ) and may not have been peer-reviewed. Any opinions or recommendations discussed are solely those of the author(s) and are not endorsed by BMJ. BMJ disclaims all liability and responsibility arising from any reliance placed on the content. Where the content includes any translated material, BMJ does not warrant the accuracy and reliability of the translations (including but not limited to local regulations, clinical guidelines, terminology, drug names and drug dosages), and is not responsible for any error and/or omissions arising from translation and adaptation or otherwise.

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