title: Assaults on staff by psychiatric patients in community residences.
abstract: The study examined assaultive behavior directed toward staff of community-based residential facilities by patients who had been discharged to these facilities from Massachusetts state psychiatric hospitals in the early 1990s. Observed rates of assault declined by 61 percent over a six-and-a-half-year period. Early in the study period, male patients were more likely than female patients to be assaultive, but men and women had similar rates of assaultiveness later in the study period, after they had been in residential placements for several years. The most common diagnosis among assaultive patients was schizophrenia.
authors.affiliation: Massachusetts Department of Mental Health, USA. raymond.b.flannery@state.ma.us
authors.forename: R B
authors.initials: RB
authors.lastname: Flannery
authors.forename: W
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Fisher
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Walker
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Kolodziej
authors.forename: M J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Spillane
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D003156:Community Mental Health Services / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005260:Female; D006282:Health Personnel; D006801:Humans; D007326:Institutionalization / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D008297:Male; D008404:Massachusetts / Q000453:epidemiology; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000523:psychology / Q000534:rehabilitation*; D008875:Middle Aged; D011369:Professional-Patient Relations; D012112:Residential Facilities / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D014754:Violence / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*