NCJ Number
190236
Journal
Criminal Behaviour and Mental Health Volume: 11 Issue: 1 Dated: 2001 Pages: S73-S76
Date Published
2001
Length
4 pages
Annotation
This editorial addressed the use of risk assessment and management of violence in relation to mental health patients and the positives and negatives to risk assessment in providing the necessary care and treatment of a patient.
Abstract
Risk assessment has increasingly occupied a central role in the clinical practice of mental health professionals. The quality of services is measured by the adequacy of risk assessment practice and procedures. There is an assumption of the propensity of the mentally disordered to destructive behaviors and these behaviors being both predictable and preventable. As remarked, risk assessment instruments had acquired a prominence. There was a search for actuarial instruments to replace clinical assessments. This was seen as premature. Caution was sounded regarding the link between mental disorder and violence. There was a danger that unimportant aspects of an individual’s care were forsaken as caregivers and professionals became preoccupied with the risk of violence. The contentious issues were centered around how risk factors should best be ascertained and how the evaluations of risk should then inform clinical practice.