Abstract
Aims and methodAccumulating evidence suggest that psychiatrists may be at greater risk of being stalked compared with the general population. We used a self-administered questionnaire to survey psychiatrists in Ireland about their experiences, practices and attitudes regarding work-related stalking.ResultsWe found that 25.1% of psychiatrists in Ireland had been the subject of stalking behaviour at some point in their career. At the time of the survey, 5.5% of respondents were actively being stalked. The majority of the stalking occurred in the workplace and most of the perpetrators were patients. Most of the victims were unaware of guidelines or other supportive mechanisms in their workplace. Of those who reported their experiences to authorities, almost half were not satisfied with the support they received.Clinical implicationsStalking of psychiatrists is not uncommon. Employers should put in place supportive structures backed up by education and training to reduce the incidence, associated morbidity and other wider consequences of stalking.
Highlights
ORIGINAL PAPERS Nwachukwu et al Psychiatrists’ experiences of stalking health professionals are at a higher risk and have reported increased anxiety, stress, time off work and financial loss when they are subjected to this form of behaviour.[5]
Our finding of a prevalence rate of 25.1% is similar to that found by the Royal College of Psychiatrists in the UK where 21.3% of psychiatrists considered themselves to have experienced being stalked.[10]
These prevalence rates differ from the 11% reported in the Italian study[11] and 38% reported in the German study.[8]
Summary
Of the trainees who responded, 41% had been physically assaulted at least once and 89% had been verbally assaulted. There was no association between the level of training or attendance at a breakaway training course and having been subject to physical assault. Clinical implications Our study showed unacceptable levels of physical and verbal assault on psychiatric trainees and an important effect of those incidents on clinical practice. Previous studies have shown that many psychiatrists have been assaulted and/or threatened while at work, with prevalence ranging from 17 to 60%.1-5. Few studies on this subject have been undertaken in England. Most of the assaults (61%) were committed by patients in general adult
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