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February 5, 2006
Safe Self-Harm
Posted by Dave Blount at February 5, 2006 4:28 PM
Clean needles for junkies, Medicaid-reimbursed Viagra for sex offenders, and now this:
Patients who want to harm themselves could be given clean blades and advice on where to cut, under plans drawn up by nurses' leaders. ... Senior nurses working with mental health patients have drawn up the proposals for "safe self-harm" to be debated in April by the Royal College of Nursing. ... If the nurses' proposals are adopted, patients could be taken to a safe place where they would be watched and given advice while they cut themselves.
The RCN's mental health adviser Ian Hulatt observes,
There is a clear comparison with giving clean needles to reduce HIV.
Yes, as V the K pointed out, both are excellent examples of loopy liberal policies enabling destructive behavior.
But Jeremy Bore, vice-chairman of the RCN's prison forum, thinks it's a great idea:
My instinct is that it is better to sit with the patient and talk to them while they are self-harming. We should definitely give advice on safer parts of the body to cut.
It could get to the state where we could have a discussion with the patient about how deep the cuts were going to be, and how many.
It looks like the spirit of egalitarianism that underlies Britain's socialized medicine has led to the lunatics running the asylums.
Don't worry: the nurse made sure everything was sterilized.
