COMMUNITY CASE STUDY article
Front. Psychiatry
Sec. Public Mental Health
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyt.2025.1608804
Personalised care for people with excessive alcohol use following an episode of self-harm: A mixed methods community case study in a Psychiatric Liaison Team
Provisionally accepted
- 1Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, United Kingdom
- 2Cumbria, Northumberland, Tyne and Wear NHS Foundation Trust, Newcatle Upon Tyne, United Kingdom
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Background: Excessive alcohol use is common among people presenting to emergency departments with self-harm; however, this group face barriers accessing appropriate support. This study aimed to evaluate a rapid access personalised face-to-face service developed to address this gap and explore wider implementation opportunities. Methods: We conducted a service evaluation with a mixed methods convergent design. An NHS data custodian extracted and anonymised electronic health records data prior to sharing with the research team for analysis using descriptive statistics and non-parametric tests. Qualitative semi-structured interviews were conducted with patients and clinicians and analysed thematically. Quantitative and qualitative data were integrated, and meta-inferences drawn. Results: Patients accessing the service (n=68) were mostly female (61.8%), white (83.9%), mean age 35 years (range 19-69), and most experienced additional mental health conditions alongside excessive alcohol use. Preliminary exploratory calculations comparing baseline to follow-up Recovery Quality of Life (ReQoL-20) scores suggested positive change. Three themes were identified from interviews with patients (n=11) and clinicians (n=7): ( 1) what the service added: rapidly plugging a recognised care gap for people using alcohol excessively but who are non-dependent and have poor mental health (2) what worked well: tailored relational support that builds recovery positive social networks and personal coping strategies (3) what could be improved: opportunities/challenges to sustaining and scaling-up the service. Conclusions: The findings contribute to an evidence gap in appropriate care for patients with excessive alcohol use, self-harm and poor mental health. Whilst limited to one service, the findings highlight what patients valued, opportunities for implementation in other contexts, and thus have relevance internationally.
Keywords: alcohol, non-dependent, Rapid access, intervention, self-harm
Received: 09 Apr 2025; Accepted: 28 Jul 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Wigham, Titchener, Jackson, Kaner, Gilvarry and O'Donnell. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Sarah Wigham, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, United Kingdom
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