Editorial: Patient safety in mental health services: Understanding the impact of emotional harm

Abstract

Remarkably, the current literature on patient safety, while awash with issues related to patient falls, pressure injuries, and so on, appears to almost ignore the fact that patients in mental health services are also prone to adverse patient safety incidents. A recent, quick search of the literature supports the claim that patient safety in relation to mental health clients is almost ignored in the literature; a concern similarly reported by Borckardt et al. (2007) not so long ago. While many of the issues likely to result in adverse events for mental health clients might not ordinarily be detected in the current hospital quality improvement programs (Lee 2013), they are nonetheless harmful to patients and, unfortunately, often extremely familiar to healthcare professionals (Francis 2010).