Hospital & Community Outpatients Psychotherapy Engagement Service for Self-harm (HOPE/COPES)

The Hospital Outpatient Psychotherapy Engagement Service is a brief psychological intervention, which seeks to extend the support for people who present at A&E following an incidence of self-harm.

Of those who are offered the HOPE service an average of 9 out of 10 people choose to attend. People generally start therapy within 1 week of the HOPE service being offered to them. The HOPE service has demonstrated a reduction in risk and incidence, with less than 10% of service users re-attending A&E with self-harm, and those that do attend are more likely to seek help rather than have engaged in self-harm behaviour.

The HOPE service evaluation conducted by ARISE provided an evidence base to secure National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Research for  Patient Benefit (RfPB) funding in support of a planned roll out of the HOPE service into community settings in 2020/21.