Most people receive support from community mental health services, but how safe are they? (28 April 2025)

Summary

Community mental health care support the largest number of patients within England’s mental health services. Yet, when it comes to research on patient safety in these settings, there’s still a lot we don’t know.

To address this gap, (Averill, Sevdalis and Henderson, 2025) undertook a first-of-its kind study looking at the free-text information that is routinely reported by staff in incident reports. This approach is crucial in mental health settings, where most staff-reported observational data lack numeric scales for comparison and is instead entered as free-text. While the National Reporting and Learning System (NRLS), does compile quantitative information from the National Health Service (NHS) and make this freely available, most of these data are counts of incident types, rather than detailed notes written by staff.

These notes contain a rich source of information – and yet, they have not previously been studied for patterns or themes, and therefore the information is not widely available to disseminate outside of the NHS. It is important that dedicated researchers are involved in this process. They have skills and experience in mitigating potential biases that could arise when looking at the data – and help discern real or truthful relationships that ultimately improve the quality of care.