Women in Ottawa are being hospitalized for self-harm almost double the rate of men, according to an analysis of data that a national research institute uses to track hospitalizations.

Data from the Canadian Institute for Health Information shows that 462 women were hospitalized in Ottawa last year for self-inflicted injuries such as burning, cutting, overusing drugs or attempting suicide in other means, compared to 270 men. That’s around eight women for every five men.

This trend is visible consistently in Ottawa dating back from 2010, the earliest date the data provides. But according to specialists, that is only part of the story.

“Women use different methods to attempt, so they tend to stay alive,” said Renée Ouimet in an interview. She is the coordinator of the Ottawa Suicide Prevention Coalition, which is run through the Canadian Mental Health Association’s Ottawa branch. The coalition runs workshops and trains Ottawa residents on how to manage suicide attempts.

She said that the means women use, in general, tend to leave time for the person to be discovered, whereas men tend to use more violent, and faster means.

Ouimet said that it isn’t really an issue of women attempting suicide more frequently than men. She said the numbers for attempted suicide are about equal, men to women, but that men tend to ‘complete’ suicide more frequently. She also said that women seek help more often, and that mental health programs tend to be geared more towards females.

Ouimet made a point of differentiating beteen self-inflicted injuries and suicide attempts, stating they are often different things. “You can self harm and cut and burn for years and years and never attempt suicide,” said Ouimet. She did note that many who do self-harm, however, may also attempt suicide at some point.

For the purposes of having clean, unambiguous data, the health institute slots attempted suicides with self-inflicted injury leading to hospitalization into the same category.

Mark Patton, a counsellor with Family Services Ottawa, said in an email exchange that in his work he sees the trend of more women self-harming than men. He said that in his experience, however, men tend to cut less but tend to use “methods of self-harm that are more ambiguously self-harm.” If someone is driving recklessly, he said, or drinking heavily, are these methods of self-harm?

The data would say no, but it is confined to a strict definition of self-injury.

Patton said that might be a sign of bias. “When most people think about self-harm, they likely imagine a girl or woman who cuts,” he said, so other forms of subtler self-injury are not being accounted for.

The health institute stipulates that this category includes only what is clearly self-inflicted injuries requiring hospitalization, meaning only those actually admitted to the hospital, not just the emergency room. It also recognizes that many cases were likely intentional self-harm but could not be listed in that category unless the practitioners or nurses were certain it was deliberate.

That means there are even more hospitalizations for self-injury than currently visible in the data.

Even without those cases, Ottawa hospitals still see hundreds of female patients for self-inflicted injuries. This trend of women being hospitalized more for self-harm is present across the province and even across the country.

** If you are in distress or considering suicide, there are places to turn for support, including the Ontario Suicide Prevention Network at 416-670-4689. The Canadian Association for Suicide Prevention also has information about where to find help.**