Factors influencing the successful connection of deliberate self-injury patients to community-based mental health centers

Objective: The emergency department (ED) is a good place to start preventing actions for suicide attempters. As a preventive factor, early intervention, follow-up management, and connection with community-based mental health care are important. We aimed to determine which factors were important for a successful connection to community-based mental health care services. Methods: This study was conducted at two tertiary teaching hospitals from January 2018 to December 2020. There were 1016 deliberate self-harm patients who received the four weeks of follow-up intervention. Results: There were 166 patients in the connected group and 850 patients in the non-connected group. In the logistic regression analysis for the successful connection to community-based mental health care, married patients had an odds ratio (OR) 1.627 (95% CI 0.960–2.758), 1.314 OR (95% CI 0.619–2.790) of separated patients and 5.317 OR (CI 1.864–15.168) of widowed patients compared to single patients. And face-to-face follow-up management had 2.630 OR (95% CI 1.815–3.811) to the successful connection rate to community-based mental healthcare compared to the patients in non-face-to-face management. Conclusion: When deliberately self-injured patients who visited the ED received short-term follow-up intervention after emergency treatment, face-to-face follow-up intervention had a higher connection rate to community-based mental healthcare centers than non-face-to-face follow-up intervention. In the future, for deliberate self-harm patients who visit the ED, the ED staff should manage deliberate self-harm through early detection and face-to-face follow-up intervention, and other methods that can compensate for face-to-face follow-up intervention.