{"id":90426,"date":"2025-05-10T16:02:08","date_gmt":"2025-05-10T16:02:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/90426\/"},"modified":"2025-05-10T16:02:08","modified_gmt":"2025-05-10T16:02:08","slug":"london-has-the-lowest-self-harm-rates-in-england-but-rates-amongst-lgb-people-much-higher","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/90426\/","title":{"rendered":"London has the lowest self-harm rates in England but rates amongst LGB+ people much higher"},"content":{"rendered":"

London currently has the lowest rates of intentional self-harm across England and Wales, according to new data released by the Office of National Statistics<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Between 2021 and 2023, 467 per 100,000 Londoners self-harmed, according to age-standardised rates compiled by ONS.<\/p>\n

This works out to a total of more than 16,500 individuals who have intentionally self-harmed \u2013 classified by ONS as the number of people who have been admitted to hospital or attended A&E at least once for intentional self-harm.<\/p>\n

This rate is half the numbers of the North East, which saw 945 cases of intentional self-harm per 100,000 people \u2013 the highest rate across England and Wales.<\/p>\n

London also has a 15% lower rate of intentional self-harm than the West Midlands, which has 555 per 100,000 \u2013 the second lowest rate across England and Wales.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

London\u2019s rate of self-harm was also 30% lower than the national average.<\/p>\n

Therapist and Co-director of Wanstead Mental Health Clinic<\/a> Siobhain Crosbie said: \u201cThe standards in this country in relation to mental health are absolutely dire. <\/p>\n

\u201cLondon may be better and it has a lot more resources and accessibility but it\u2019s still horrific.\u201d<\/p>\n

Self-harm rates broken down by sexuality<\/p>\n

The ONS dataset was the first to analyse self-harm and suicide by sexual orientation, finding that people who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual or other sexual orientations (LGB+) are two and a half more times more likely to self-harm than those identifying as straight or heterosexual.<\/p>\n

This trend is also reflected in London\u2019s rates of self-harm, with LGB+ people 2.3 times more likely to self-harm than straight or heterosexual people in the capital.<\/p>\n

Crosbie said: \u201cIt\u2019s a very difficult thing for young adults to open up and share their sexuality, especially when some parents do reject their children. <\/p>\n

\u201cSo a lot of LGB+ people would come to a city like London because there is a safety psychologically in coming to a city that just allows them to feel easier in themselves. <\/p>\n

\u201cBut accessibility is still horrific and it\u2019s impossible to provide affordable therapy like at Wanstead Mental Health Clinic<\/a> without support from donations or bursaries.<\/a>\u201c<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

This difference is exacerbated when the data is broken down further, as lesbian women are nearly three times more likely to self-harm than straight women.<\/p>\n

The gap between men and women in rates of self-harm is also magnified within the LGB+ community as lesbian women are 2.4 times more likely to self-harm than gay men.<\/p>\n

Mind\u2019s Information Content Manager Rosie Weatherley said: \u201cWe know that LGBTQIA+ people are more likely to experience mental health problems due to difficult experiences, like discrimination and stigma.<\/p>\n

\u201cBeing LGBTQIA+ isn\u2019t a mental health problem, and doesn\u2019t cause mental health problems. <\/p>\n

\u201cBut experiences like homophobia, biphobia, transphobia, acephobia and stigma towards non-binary people and intersex people can all affect mental health.\u201d<\/p>\n

A deeper analysis<\/p>\n

The ONS dataset further breaks down the rates of self-harm into age, disability and country of birth. <\/p>\n

This shows that 16 to 24 year olds are at more than a 55% higher risk of self-harm than 25 to 34 year olds, and within the 16 to 24 year old group LGB+ members are at a 63% higher risk than straight or heterosexual people.<\/p>\n

Emily Kidd, 22, suffered with suicidal thoughts and has previously self-harmed following feelings of isolation and anxiety leading up to and during COVID.<\/p>\n

She said: \u201cI think the fact that I\u2019m a woman meant that in some cases I was taken less seriously by healthcare professionals, like blaming it on hormones or periods instead of understanding that it was more than just that.\u201d<\/p>\n

After an attempted suicide before her 18th birthday, Emily sought help for her mental health<\/a> but kept it a secret from her parents.<\/p>\n

She added: \u201cMy family were very supportive physically but because I didn\u2019t like to talk about how I feel they struggled to support me mentally.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that talking about mental health needs to be normalised in schools through talks and discussions so that people feel less scared to mention it.\u201d<\/p>\n

The data also shows that in London those identifying as LGB+ that were born in the UK are almost twice as likely to self-harm as those identifying as LGB+ that were born outside of the UK. <\/p>\n

Londoners with a disability that limits their day-to-day activities a lot are also eight times more likely to self-harm than those without a disability.<\/p>\n

The most at risk group across the whole dataset is bisexuals with a disability that limits their day-to-day activities a lot who have a rate of 5,059 per 100,000, double the rate of straight people with the same disability severity and 2.7 times higher than bisexuals with a less severe disability.<\/p>\n

Rethink Mental Illness\u2019 Head of Suicide Prevention Lourdes Colclough said: \u201cCertain groups within the LGBTQIA+ community will face double discrimination, whether that\u2019s because of their gender, race, ethnicity or age, putting them at further risk of poor mental health.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo change this, we need meaningful action to create inclusive services, provide early support, and build a society where every LGBTQIA+ person feels safe, valued, and heard.\u201d<\/p>\n

Anyone struggling with their mental health can contact the Samaritans <\/a>for free on the phone at 116 123 or via email at [email\u00a0protected]<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Featured image via Freepik.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"London currently has the lowest rates of intentional self-harm across England and Wales, according to new data released…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":90427,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7757],"tags":[748,2814,393,4884,257,218,41472,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-90426","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-london","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-data","10":"tag-england","11":"tag-great-britain","12":"tag-london","13":"tag-mental-health","14":"tag-self-harm","15":"tag-uk","16":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114484382500513122","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90426","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=90426"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90426\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/90427"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=90426"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=90426"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=90426"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}