title: Assessing aggression risks in patients of the ambulatory mental health crisis team.
abstract: During outreaching crisis visits, crisis team members run the risk of being confronted with aggressive behavior from their patients. To prevent dangerous situations, a method to assess risks in advance, on the basis of information received before the visit to the patient in crisis, could prove useful. During a two-year period, crisis team members completed a checklist before visiting patients in psychiatric crises. After each crisis visit, if there had been any aggression, this was recorded by means of the SOAS-R. In 51 of 499 crisis visits (10%) aggression was documented. The results indicate that the predictive validity of the presented checklist for occurrences of aggression may be fair-to-good. Use of the checklist in everyday crisis team practice seems recommendable as it structures the way risks are assessed before entering a potentially dangerous situation.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Mental Health Institute Oost-Brabant, Veghel, The Netherlands. ejm.penterman@ggzoostbrabant.nl
authors.forename: Berry
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Penterman
authors.forename: Henk
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Nijman
mesh_terms: D000374:Aggression / Q000523:psychology*; D000553:Ambulatory Care / Q000458:organization & administration*; D057189:Checklist; D003156:Community Mental Health Services / Q000458:organization & administration*; D003419:Crisis Intervention; D006801:Humans; D016015:Logistic Models; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000628:therapy*; D009426:Netherlands; D010348:Patient Care Team / Q000458:organization & administration; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D012017:Referral and Consultation; D018570:Risk Assessment; D012307:Risk Factors; D014754:Violence / Q000523:psychology