One in seven U.K. mental-health workers attacked

A new survey of staff working in the U.K.'s National Health Service has shown that one in seven mental health workers suffered physical violence from service users or members of the public last year. The NHS staff survey also showed that 18% of mental-health professionals had suffered bullying, harassment and abuse from service users or the public in 2010. 31% of mental-health workers suffered from stress, second only to ambulance workers. The number of staff suffering violence was down slightly from 18% in 2009 to 15% in 2010 but only 40% of those who experienced verbal abuse and 51% of those who suffered physical abuse felt that their employer would take effective action to deal with it.