The Way Back Support Service Evaluation Project: Recurrence of deliberate self-poisoning admissions following provision of nonclinical and practical support after deliberate self-poisoning

The Way Back Support Service is a non-clinical care coordination service for people who have attempted suicide. This study investigated the effectiveness of this service as delivered in the Hunter region (Australia) in reducing hospital admissions (for deliberate self-poisoning, psychiatric, other) for a population of hospital-treated deliberate self-poisoning patients. There were no differences for the intervention cohort compared to the historical controls for the proportion who had any, or number of, deliberate self-poisoning readmissions that occurred in the twelve month follow-up period. The only difference identified in the secondary outcomes was that the intervention cohort had a trend for more psychiatric and more general hospital admissions than the historical controls. Limitations include comparing outcomes to historical controls (versus those presenting at the same time-point), limited capacity to capture information about exact exposure to the intervention, and no component that directly asked participants about their experiences of the intervention.