Falls in a psychiatric unit

Abstract

This paper analyses the falls suffered by patients admitted in the Psychiatric Unit of the "Virgen del Camino" Hospital in the period between April 1998 and October 1999, corresponding to a total of 713 persons aged between 15 and 96 years. The aim of this paper, besides that of registering the falls, is to seek a possible relation between the fall and diverse factors such as diagnosis, treatment, age, time of day when the fall took place, the surroundings where it occurred, the autonomy of the patient and its consequences. A total of 59 falls were registered, corresponding to 36 patients who suffered falls, and it was found after analysing the different factors influencing the fall that a clear profile of the patient involved could not be established, since no clear relation was found between these factors and the fall.