New report reveals under staffing in mental health care
Government monitoring body the The Mental Health Act Commission claims that under staffing is resulting in the death of many mental health patients, reports the Guardian.
A new study called Coercion and Consent: Monitoring the Mental Health Act 2007-2009, has found that many patients on suicide watch are not being monitored closely enough, and reveals many examples of where patients who were supposed to be checked on frequently had committed suicide after being left for hours at a time.
However, the report also noted that in order to monitor all patients under their care, the staff would have had to observe each patient on a 25 second rotation, which would be physically impossible.
Other areas highlighted included mixed-sex wards, which the report claimed made many women unsafe and left them vulnerable to ‘low-level harassment’. The number of children being admitted to adult wards was also cause for concern.