Nearly 12,000 people attended hospital emergency departments last year due to deliberate self-injury.
A conference in Dublin also heard that an estimated further 60,000 people failed to seek direct medical help for self-injury.
Dr Kay Inckle of Trinity College's School of Social Work and Social Policy said self-injury was not attention seeking but a coping mechanism.
She said there was no policy or best practice protocol in Ireland to deal with the issue and called for a better response to cases which is not focussed solely on prevention and controlling the behaviour.
Dr Inkcle added that the response should deal with the needs of each individual patient and that the existing system often results in increased distress and harm.
HSE Assistant National Director of Mental Health Martin Rogan said the number attending A&E departments due to self-injury was increasing and the HSE had detailed information on each case.
He said that 2,000 people who attended hospital last year due to self-injury were repeat attenders.
Mr Rogan said the HSE had a clinical programme to deal with the issue.
Figures show the rate of self-injury is significantly higher in females than in males.
The highest rate of self-injury is seen in young people, mostly women aged 15-19 years and men aged 20-24 years.
Two thirds of all self-injury cases involve medication overdose.
For those concerned about the issue the Samaritans Helpline is 1850-60-90-90.
