violence risk assessment

Violence Risk Assessments: Why they Work!

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

violence risk assessmentThese 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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Understanding Psychological Evaluations

Understanding Psychological Evaluations

It’s important to understand psychological evaluations and how they can be beneficial for you.

The idea of seeking psychiatric care in Indiana may seem daunting if you are unfamiliar with what to expect. If you seek psychiatric care for yourself or your child, you or your child will need to undergo psychological evaluations as part of an intake process. Try not to be intimidated as this testing is important for your mental healthcare provider to know how to best treat you going forward.

What Is Psychological Evaluation?

When you are being assessed, some tools your care provider may use include:

  • Questionnaires
  • Checklists
  • School or medical records
  • Interviews
  • Observational data

These tools will give your care provider an in-depth picture of how to best help you. They will be able to put together a treatment plan that is optimized to meet your needs and get you feeling better.
The evaluations serve a similar purpose to blood tests or ultrasounds in a medical setting. This includes diagnosing, assessing, and treating a problem for the patient.
Each patient is unique, so the tools or combination of tools used in each of their psychological evaluations will be, as well.
These tests and tools are not pass or fail, and you can’t give a wrong answer. Being open and honest during your assessment will help you and your doctor set up proper treatment.

What Can Psychological Evaluations Do?

Some ways these results are used include:

  • Diagnosing learning disorders in children
  • Assessing the extent of brain injury or dementia/memory disorders
  • Diagnosing mood or emotion disorders

Understanding Psychological EvaluationsThese tests help doctors get down to the root cause of behaviors or diagnose them to move forward with treatment.
If you feel you might be interested in starting psychiatric care, you may wish to reach out to a mental health provider near you.

Questions? Want to book an appointment? Contact our Indiana office, here.
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