Nurses train to aid suicidal patients

OVER three-quarters of people who attempt suicide take overdoses and most use drugs regularly found in any home, a study has found.

Nurses in the south-east, where over 1,100 people harmed themselves in 2002, are being given specialist training to help them deal with patients who are hospitalised, having attempted to take their own life.

The South Eastern Health Board has appointed a project co-ordinator for a new nursing project in the area. Based in the Nursing and Midwifery Planning & Development Unit at Waterford Regional Hospital, the project will focus on nursing assessment of self-harm.