title: The Behavioural Status Index: therapeutic assessment of risk, insight, communication and social skills.
abstract: An overview is given of the Behavioural Status Index (BSI), a developing classification instrument offering practical approaches to assessment and therapy surrounding social 'risk'. The approach hypothesizes that social 'risk' presented by a patient tends to correlate inversely with his/her degree of personal insight and capacity to perform well in key communicative and social skills, though no causal claims are made. Evidence exists to suggest that personal insight and communicative and social skills deserve serious consideration in a therapeutic approach to violent and dangerous behaviours. 'Risky' behaviours, as operationalized in the 'risk' subscale of the BSI, insight into the self and its activities, and communicative and social skills, may provide three critical foci for treatment planning in high security psychiatric care. A hypothetical linked factorial structure is proposed.
authors.affiliation: School of Nursing, Midwifery & Health Visiting, University of Manchester, UK.
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Woods
authors.forename: V
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Reed
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Robinson
mesh_terms: D001526:Behavioral Symptoms / Q000451:nursing* / Q000523:psychology*; D003142:Communication; D003617:Dangerous Behavior; D005163:Factor Analysis, Statistical; D006801:Humans; D009730:Nursing Assessment / Q000379:methods*; D011568:Psychiatric Nursing / Q000379:methods*; D011594:Psychometrics; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D018570:Risk Assessment / Q000379:methods*; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D012951:Socialization