Lessons Learnt From the Narratives of Women Who Self-Harm in Prison.

In England and Wales, women in prison make up a minority (<5%) of the total custodial population, yet acts of self-harm are around five times more common among incarcerated women. While there has been a multiagency effort to improve how acts of self-harm are documented across prisons, the patterns and functions of self-harm for women in prison have not yet been fully addressed. We aimed to determine the patterns, prevalence, and functions of self-harm among women in prison through a mixed-methods study.

A Qualitative Study of Good-Bye Letters in Prison Therapy.

Background: Self-harm rates among imprisoned women in the UK are extremely high and there are limited psychological therapies available to support them in prison. This paper presents women's subjective accounts of receiving good-bye letters at the end of brief psychodynamic interpersonal therapy (PIT) and how these letters positively impacted on their incidents of self-harm.

Aims: This study presents the accounts of 13 imprisoned women who self-harmed and received letters following completion of a minimum of four sessions of brief PIT in prison.

Assessment rates and compliance with assertive follow-up after self-harm: cohort study.

The objectives of this study were to identify 1) the proportion of self-harm episodes that resulted in assessment by a specialist self-harm team and offers, attendance, and completion of brief therapy and 2) the factors associated with these treatment options. A prospective cohort study of 717 hospital presentations of self-harm was conducted. Rates of assessment, offers and completion of therapy ranged from 50% to 60%.