Managing the violent patient in a community mental health center

Staff ofcommunity mental health centers are finding that they must deal with increasing numbers of imminently or potentially violent patients. Some of the author's suggestions for handling such patients include assigning two therapists, one man and one woman; holding the interviews in special offices that have two exits and are in view of staff but out of view of other patients; and notifying the center director and other staff that a potentially violent patient is in the center. The author also reviews some of the literature on correlates of violent behavior. The most obvious correlate is a previous history of repeated severely violent behavior.