Emergency Psychiatry: The Stalking of Mental Health Professionals by Patients

Galeazzi, Gian Maria; Elkins, Kathryn; Curci, Paolo

doi:10.1176/appi.ps.56.2.137

Cited by 62 publications

(90 citation statements)

References 8 publications

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“…This is consistent with findings from the Italian study of mental health professionals 9 that found that unwanted telephone calls (75%) followed by loitering near the victim (58%) were the most reported stalking behaviour.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 91%

“…8 However, in an Italian study of all mental health professionals, 11% reported that they had been subjected to stalking behaviour. 9 There are only a few studies globally that have looked at the experiences of psychiatrists alone as victims of stalking behaviour. In 2008, the Royal College of Psychiatrists in the UK surveyed its members on their experiences of being stalked.…”

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confidence: 99%

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Psychiatrists' experiences of stalking in Ireland: prevalence and characteristics

et al. 2012

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 91%

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confidence: 99%

Psychiatrists' experiences of stalking in Ireland: prevalence and characteristics

et al. 2012

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“…13 Additionally, psychiatrists and physicians whose practices include large numbers of patients with mental illness and addiction problems are at higher risk of encountering abuse. 7,[15][16][17] Abuse in the workplace has been associated with experiencing higher levels of stress, increased consumption of alcohol, and an increased risk for developing mental health diffi culties, including depression, anxiety, and suicidal ideation, as well as absence from work, physical problems, employment termination, and compromised patient care. [18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25] Abusive encounters in the workplace may lead to post-traumatic stress disorder, attrition of workers, and physician refusal to work in such high-risk areas as emergency departments and after-hours clinics.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For instance, physicians working in emergency departments, psychiatric emergency departments, and after-hours clinics, as well as those on house calls, have an increased likelihood of experiencing abusive encounters. 7,[12][13][14][15] Emergency departments appear to be especially problematic. An American study reported that 1 in 3 emergency department physicians was physically assaulted during the previous year.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

How the Medical Culture Contributes to Coworker-Perpetrated Harassment and Abuse of Family Physicians

Miedema

MacIntyre²,

Tatemichi³

et al. 2012

The Annals of Family Medicine

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PURPOSE Harassment and abuse in the workplace of family physicians has been associated with higher levels of stress, increased consumption of alcohol, and higher risk for developing mental health problems. Few studies have examined issues contributing to abusive encounters in the workplace of family physicians. METHODSFor the overall study we used a mixed methods design, which included a cross-sectional survey of a randomly selected sample of active family physicians from the database of the College of Family Physicians of Canada and telephone interviews with those who reported experiencing work related harassment and abuse in the last year. The data presented here arise from the qualitative interviews of the study, which were analyzed thematically. RESULTSThe interview arm of the study included 23 female and 14 male participants. The major themes that emerged from the study were (1) modeling of abusive behaviors, (2) status hierarchy among various medical disciplines, (3) shortage of physicians, and (4) lack of transparent policies and follow-up procedures after abusive encounters. The results are discussed using the broken window theory.CONCLUSION Many family physicians experience harassing and abusive encounters during their training or in the workplace. The current medical culture appears to contribute to harassment and abuse in the workplace of family physicians in Canada. We described the components that intentionally or unintentionally facilitate abusive behavior in the medical culture. Ann Fam Med 2012;10:111-117. doi:10.1370/afm.1341. INTRODUCTIONH ealth care workers are at greater risk of workplace abuse than most other workers, with the exception of law enforcement officers and taxi drivers.1 Among health care professionals, nurses and family physicians are at greatest risk for being abused. [2][3][4][5][6] Research conducted in Canada, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, and the United States has found that in their work, physicians experience many forms of harassment and abuse, 1 including verbal abuse, intimidation, sexual harassment, stalking, and assault from both patients and colleagues.7-10 An Australian study reported that 64% of general practitioners reported abuse in the previous year, with low-level mistreatment, such as verbal abuse, being the most common. More than 10% reported experiences of sexual harassment and physical abuse. 7 Similar trends have been found in such other countries as New Zealand and Canada. 8,11 Research conducted in Canada, carried out by our research team, reported that 98% of family physicians reported having experienced at least 1 minor abusive event (eg, humiliation), 75% reported having experienced a major event (eg, sexual harassment), and 39% had experienced a severe event (eg, assault) during their career as a physician.9 Twenty-nine percent of the polled physicians reported having been abused in the previous month by either a patient or family member of a patient. A small group reported having been abused by colleagues (9%) and coworkers (6%) in the prev...

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“…Some studies reported that 1 in 3 emergency department doctors were physically assaulted during the previous year, and 75% of all US emergency department (ED) doctors experienced at least one verbal threat (52). Psychiatrists and other doctors whose practice includes many patients with mental illness and addiction problems are at higher risk of being assulted (34,53,54). In our study, 59.2% of doctors (n=77) had been verbally and/or physically attacked at least once in the past year.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Çanakkale ilinde son 1 yılda hekime yönelik saldırıların değerlendirilmesi

Karaahmet¹,

Bakım²,

Altınbaş³

et al. 2014

Dusunen Adam

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Evaluation of assaults on doctors in Canakkale within the last yearObjective: Violence against doctors and health professionals in the healthcare environment is thought to have increased in recent years. Although physical and verbal assaults in the health care system have been evaluated in many different aspects, a limited amount of research has been done in this field in our country.For this reason, we aimed to investigate assaults towards doctors working at the Çanakkale State Hospital and Çanakkale Onsekiz Mart University in Turkey.Method: A questionnaire was prepared by researchers assessing assaults within the last year on doctors working in the state and university hospitals. Data from 130 doctors who agreed to participation in the study were analysed with SPSS version 16. Descriptive statistics, independent sample T-test for normally distributed variables and Mann-Whitney U test for non-normally distributed variables were used to compare the groups.Results: We found that 59.2% (n=77) of the doctors were verbally and/or physically assaulted at least once during the past year. The majority of attackers consisted of relatives of patients (40.8% verbal attack, n=31).The verbal assaults mostly occurred in outpatient clinics (61.5%), with half of the physical assaults occurring in the emergency department. The vast majority of doctors considered that poor health policies were the most important reason for assaults (83.3%, n=65), and nearly all of them thought that violence towards doctors has increased in recent years (97.4%). Conclusion:The fact that most of the doctors exposed to assaults, regardless of gender, institution, or work position, perceived health policies as being responsible for this violent atmosphere, is very striking. We believe that larger sample-size and comprehensive countrywide studies in this area would help to provide solutions for this problem. Sonuç: Hekimlerin önemli bir bölümünün cinsiyet, çalıştıkları kurum ve konumdan bağımsız olarak, saldırılardan benzer oranda etkilenmesi ve uygulanan sağlık politikalarını var olan şiddet ortamının sorumlusu olarak görmesi oldukça çarpıcıdır. Bu alanda, daha geniş örneklem ile daha kapsamlı, ülke genelinde yapılacak çalışmaların, bu sorunun çözümüne ilişkin çıkış yolları sağlayacağını düşünmekteyiz.

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Emergency Psychiatry: The Stalking of Mental Health Professionals by Patients

Cited by 62 publications

References 8 publications

Psychiatrists' experiences of stalking in Ireland: prevalence and characteristics

Psychiatrists' experiences of stalking in Ireland: prevalence and characteristics

How the Medical Culture Contributes to Coworker-Perpetrated Harassment and Abuse of Family Physicians

Çanakkale ilinde son 1 yılda hekime yönelik saldırıların değerlendirilmesi

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