So what exactly are Risk Assessments?
There are so many facets to mental health. Some are definitely genetic, and others are environmental. There are inherited diseases, symptoms, and behaviors. The fact remains is that we care about humanity, and have been developing ways to help those who are violence-prone. When a patient or client appears to be violence-prone there is a beneficial tool that evaluates such individuals. After all, the key is to get to the root of violence-prone individuals and understand the causation. Now, violence risk assessments are utilized by health care providers to establish a common frame of reference. One major focus is to employ psychological evaluations, with a view toward whether the patient might be at risk to be combative, employ assaults, or homicide. There is a scale that evaluates the degree of danger.
Now, it is imperative to note that some of the assessment tools might be difficult to use in an emergency room situation. Often, there is no time to start lengthy psychological evaluations. Another factor is that in an emergency department setting, the medical history of a patient might very well be unavailable!
What is the call to action? Everything comes together with a plan.
It is with medical wisdom that one understands risk assessments are not a substitute for clinician gestalt. However, they do perform a valuable insight into patient diagnosis and mental health improvement. One must be aware that psychological evaluations and violence risk assessments do take time, and are not intended for imminent risk. The intention of risk assessments is to prevent future happenings and the potential for problems! Remember the old saying, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure? It is true with universal precautions, and it is true in wholesome mental health situations. If a potential problem is helped early on, the assessments are worth their weight in gold!
Be aware of what to look for in problematic patients.
When checking out a patient for behaviors, it is an observational duty to be alert concerning an individual’s indicators such as:
●anxiety
●violent threats
●staring
●mumbling
●irritability
●confusion
● destroying property
These traits are informational indicators to help with the evaluations. Remember, when dealing with risk assessments, and the prone to violence, every patient should be treated with respect, care, and professionalism. One never knows the complete picture of what a person has gone through, what is part of their DNA inheritance, and what is environmental. In the end, these assessments do help in a positive way, to diagnose with a view toward good mental health, and happy life. Risk assessments can identify those at risk before a terrible event takes place and help provide treatment.
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