Teenage girls appear to be behind a significant increase in the number of people visiting Waterloo Region’s emergency rooms for treatment after intentionally harming themselves.
According to a new report from Region of Waterloo Public Health, the region saw an average of 679 ER visits and 325 hospitalizations related to self-harm each year between 2011 and 2015.
The highest number of trips to the emergency room for self-harm on record occurred in 2015, when the number worked out to 183.5 visits per 100,000 residents – significantly higher than the Ontario average of 119.1 visits per 100,000 people.
Similar discrepancies are noticeable among both women (254.5 visits per 100,000 people in Waterloo Region on average versus 161.1 across Ontario) and men (119.1 versus 80.9).
The biggest trend, according to the report, is a sharp increase in the rate of girls and young women ending up in emergency rooms to be treated for self-harm injuries.
Females between the ages of 10 and 19 made an average of 657.1 such visits per 100,000 Waterloo Region residents between 2011 and 2015.
That rate is nearly twice as high as women aged 20 to 29, and more than three times the rate of any other age group broken out by gender.
Overall, the report says, there has been a “significant increase” in the rates of ER visits for girls and young women over the past 10 years.
