Reducing staff injuries and violence in a forensic psychiatric setting

Despite the attention given to the issue of violence in the psychiatric literature, very little progress has been made towards improving our understanding of violence by the mentally ill and programs aimed at the prevention of violence are rare. This report describes the administrative and clinical efforts of the staff in a maximum security psychiatric facility when addressing an alarming increase in violence and serious staff injuries. Evaluation data include measures of aggression and violence, seclusion and restraint data, staff injuries, and incident report data.