Psychiatry Incident Report

---
name: psychiatry-incident-report
description: |
  Respond to, record and learn from incidents involving people experiencing mental illness and psychological distress in a mental health unit and community mental health team base.
  TRIGGERS - Use when a psychiatrist needs a incident reporting & response for people experiencing mental illness and psychological distress in a mental health unit and community mental health team base.
category: Psychiatry
license: MIT
version: 1.0
---
# Incident Reporting & Response — Psychiatry

Respond to, record and learn from incidents involving people experiencing mental illness and psychological distress in a mental health unit and community mental health team base. The deliverable is a factual incident report and a lessons-learned action list.
This skill is written for a psychiatrist working with people experiencing mental illness and psychological distress in a mental health unit and community mental health team base.

## When to use
- You are a psychiatrist preparing, delivering or reviewing this part of your work in a mental health unit and community mental health team base.
- You need a defensible, repeatable approach that produces a factual incident report and a lessons-learned action list.
- A colleague, auditor or client asks how this was done and what evidence supports it.

## Key Concepts
| Term | Meaning |
|------|---------|
| Liaison psychiatry | psychiatric care for patients in general hospitals |
| Formulation | an explanation of how a person's difficulties developed and are maintained |
| Sectioning | detaining a person under mental health law for assessment or treatment |

## Workflow
1. **Step 1** - Make the situation safe first; attend to people before paperwork, and escalate if suicide risk not recognised is still live
2. **Step 2** - Record facts while they are fresh: what happened, when, who was involved, what was observed — in psychiatric assessments
3. **Step 3** - Notify the people and bodies who must know, within the timeframes that apply in a mental health unit and community mental health team base
4. **Step 4** - Support those affected, including honest communication with people experiencing mental illness and psychological distress about what happened and what happens next
5. **Step 5** - Analyse causes without blame, agree preventive actions with owners and dates, and track them to closure

## Profession-Specific Components
| Component | Details for Psychiatry |
|-----------|-------------------------------|
| Core documentation | psychiatric assessments; risk formulations; care plans; mental health act documentation |
| Core tools & equipment | observation level charts; de-escalation spaces; electronic prescribing systems; outcome questionnaires |
| People involved | people experiencing mental illness and psychological distress; the psychiatrist; colleagues and other services in a mental health unit and community mental health team base |
| Primary record | psychiatric assessments — keep it current, dated and attributable |

## Output Format
**Context:** [Situation in a mental health unit and community mental health team base] | **Objective:** [What this must achieve] | **Audience:** [people experiencing mental illness and psychological distress and other stakeholders]

The finished output is a factual incident report and a lessons-learned action list, structured as:
1. Summary of position and evidence
2. Detail, following the workflow above
3. Decisions, actions, owners and dates
4. Review point and escalation route

### Action Plan
1. **Immediate:** Confirm scope, consent and the evidence available in psychiatric assessments.
2. **Short-term:** Complete the workflow steps and record outcomes against risk assessment completion.
3. **Medium-term:** Review results, close actions, and update local procedures in a mental health unit and community mental health team base.

## Success Metrics
| Metric | Target | Method |
|--------|--------|--------|
| risk assessment completion | Agree a local target and track the trend | Measured from psychiatric assessments and reviewed on a set cycle |
| community follow-up within 7 days of discharge | Agree a local target and track the trend | Measured from psychiatric assessments and reviewed on a set cycle |
| readmission rate | Agree a local target and track the trend | Measured from psychiatric assessments and reviewed on a set cycle |
| patient-reported outcome change | Agree a local target and track the trend | Measured from psychiatric assessments and reviewed on a set cycle |

## Guardrails & Quality Checks
- Never let this happen: suicide risk not recognised.
- Never let this happen: absconding from the unit.
- Never let this happen: medication side-effects unmanaged.
- Work only within the competence and authority of a psychiatrist; escalate or refer anything beyond it.
- Record facts and observations, not speculation, and keep records confidential to a mental health unit and community mental health team base's rules.
- Verify names, dates, figures and measurements twice before anything is issued or signed off.
- Use only real, verified information from the case in hand — never invent results, credentials or evidence.

## Example (illustrative)
A psychiatrist in a mental health unit and community mental health team base applies this workflow for people experiencing mental illness and psychological distress: they open
psychiatric assessments, work through the five steps using observation level charts, and close by recording
the outcome against risk assessment completion and agreeing the next review date. (Illustrative example only —
replace with the real details of the case in hand.)