Abstract
Nearly thirty years of published research has documented the continuing presence of patient assaults on staff. These studies have included the traditional male patient with a diagnosis of schizophrenia and histories of violence and substance use disorder and the newer female, personality-disordered individual. This study reports on a ten-year longitudinal analysis of assaultive patients in one public-sector mental healthcare system during a period which included the national shift toward managed care initiatives. Data were gathered in the context of the Assaulted Staff Action Program, a crisis intervention program for staff victims. Patient assailants in both inpatient and community settings included both the traditional and newer personality-disordered individuals. The majority of assailants were females. Managed care initiatives appeared to have had little impact on type of assailants. Implications for safety and treatment are discussed.
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Flannery, R.B., Schuler, A.P., Farley, E.M. et al. Characteristics of Assaultive Psychiatric Patients: Ten Year Analysis of the Assaulted Staff Action Program (ASAP). Psychiatr Q 73, 59–69 (2002). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1012844818643
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1012844818643