Personal safety among doctors working in psychiatric services

Background: Doctors working in psychiatry are exposed to different levels of threat to their own safety due to the nature of psychiatric practice. There is some evidence to suggest that those working on inpatient units and at night-time might be at increased risk of patient -related violence due to environmental factors but research in this domain is less than expected. Methods: We carried out an online survey of personal security at work among all doctors (n=210) working in psychiatry in an English county. Our response rate was 41% and those who responded were fairly distributed in terms of gender, grade, and place of work. Results: We found that most doctors in our sample had been verbally abused (75%), physically threatened (50%), or assaulted (30%) at work. They had little confidence (33%) in security measures at their workplaces, and were significantly unsure whether their psychiatric facilities were covered by security cameras and had sufficient light at night. Doctors who did night on -calls overwhelmingly believed that they would feel more secure if there was security staff on site (84%) and their resident on -call rooms was close to the wards (78%). It was interesting to discover that male doctors felt more secure at work but they were also more likely to have been threatened or attacked. Conclusions: Our research is limited by a small sample and for having been carried out in one English county. It may not be generalisable to all psychiatric hospitals/trusts in the UK but it highlights the dire need for mental health trusts to improve security for doctors including exploring the possibility of employing security personnel.