Emergency Department visits for suicide and self-harm causes can serve as a marker for how well our community is caring for persons with behavioral health needs. High rates of ED visits for these causes may indicate opportunities for improvement and coordination across systems of care to help persons experiencing behavioral health needs access care before their needs escalate to self-harm crisis events. Data from D-H Lebanon’s ED cannot be easily compared to state or regional rates. However, the Upper Valley public health region had significantly lower rates of ED visits for suicide or self-inflicted poisoning compared to the state in 2009 (the latest year for which this data is available), with an age-adjusted rate of 1.2 per 10,000 population in the Upper Valley compared to 7.5 for NH overall, consistent with trends observed at D-H.    
Data sources: Dartmouth-Hitchcock Emergency Department Data Analytics and NH Wisdom.
Click here to view NH community profiles related to suicide and self-harm.