Standards of care for people who self-harm must be improved, says NICE

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) has published a quality standard to improve the quality of care and support for children, young people, and adults who self-harm.
The term self-harm is used to refer to any act of self-injury or self-poisoning carried out by a person, irrespective of their motivation. This commonly involves self-injury by cutting or self-poisoning with medication. Hospitals in England deal with around 220,000 episodes of self-harm by 150,000 people each year [i].
A wide range of mental health problems are associated with self-harm, including borderline personality disorder, depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, and drug and alcohol use disorders. People who self-harm are 50 to 100 times more likely to die by suicide in the 12-month period after an episode than people who do not self-harm [ii].

http://www.nice.org.uk/newsroom/pressreleases/StandardsOfCareForPeopleWhoSelfHarmMustBeImprovedSaysNICE.jsp

NICE Citizens Council to discuss factors for NICE to take into account when developing social care guidance

The question of which aspects of benefit, cost and need NICE should take into account when developing social care guidance will be discussed at the next Citizens Council meeting, taking place in Manchester next week.
The Citizens Council of the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), which provides public input into the Institute's work, holds its next meeting on 24 and 25 of January 2013. At this meeting the Citizens Council will be asked to consider factors that NICE should bear in mind when it takes on its new remit for producing social care guidance from April 2013. The Citizens Council will hear evidence from speakers covering all aspects of this topic, before taking part in thorough discussions to examine the issues in detail.