Mental Health News

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Those in and considering entering the mental health nursing sector may well wish to consider this article before going into work.  The health care commission in Britain has completed its first ever national audit focusing on violence in older people’s mental health services.  The results are due to be published layer this month.

However, early results from the audit included in the commissions State of Healthcare report indicate that there is a high risk of being assaulted as a mental health worker in this industry.

The study was carried out for the watchdog by the Royal College of Psychiatrists and draws on data from 215 mental health units in England and Wales.  This data comes from both the National Health Services and Independent sector of health care treatment.  The early results showed that 64% of those in mental health nursing for older people have reported being physically assaulted.  That’s in the last twelve months!

The report also indicates that a full 43% of nurses have no access to personal safety alarms, so they can push a button requesting aid in case a patient becomes abusive.  45% of interview rooms also lacked accessible alarms.  In addition, line of sight was impeded in a whopping 69% of patient environments.  Line of sight is very important for the safety of patients who may need help from a nurse and for the safety of those mental health nursing workers engaging on a one-to-one basis with irate patients.

Those are some very angry elderly people.  The report also found that 30% of nurses questioned stated that facilities were insufficiently staffed and 50% of mental health workers felt that the gender mix was wrong when working with patients.