The Assaulted Staff Action Program (ASAP): common issues in fielding a team

Thirty-five years of empirical research have continuously documented the potential negative impact of patient assaults on staff. The Assaulted Staff Action Program (ASAP) is a voluntary, peer-help, systems-wide crisis intervention debriefing approach for employee victims of these assaults. ASAP has been associated with providing needed clinical support for victims, declines in violence, and cost-effectiveness in service delivery. A previous paper outlined the basic steps needed to field and ASAP team. This paper continues to address this need by outlining the most commonly encountered ASAP problems and solutions that have evolved in the first eight years of ASAP programs. The implications are discussed.