Managing Clinical Risk: A Guide to Effective Practice

Violence and self-injury cause anxiety, misery and physical and psychological damage to service users, their carers, the practitioners who look after them, and in some cases, the public at large. In some correctional and mental health settings, violence and self-injury are an all too common feature of the experience of care. Practitioners, service users, and commissioners have a shared interest in working together effectively to prevent violence and self-injury and to maintain an environment in which potential for harm is understood and sympathetically managed.Much has been written about clinical risk assessment in correctional, psychiatric, and community settings with individuals who harm others as well as themselves. However, much less is known about the process of converting the findings of a risk assessment into effectively managed clinical risk. Managing clinical risk on the basis of sound assessment and formulation provides the main focus of this book.The specific objectives of this proposed book are as follows: (a) to provide practitioners with a comprehensive guide to the current state of risk assessment practice in the UK in relation to risk of harm to others and to oneself, (b) to describe UK and international research and practice in clinical risk management and how it ties in with best practice in risk assessment, and (c) to make recommendations for best practice in each of the areas covered.The book is concerned particularly with the assessment and management of risk by practitioners in forensic - psychiatric and correctional - settings although its findings are likely to be of interest to those working in community settings also, especially with forensic clients.The contributors bring to this book a wide range of knowledge and experience in thinking about risk in respect of violence and self-injury, of conducting risk management in real world correctional, mental health, and community settings, and of working with clients with a label of high risk and making everyday practice reflect best practice.It will be essential reading for qualified and trainee clinical psychiatrists and psychologists, forensic psychologists, criminal justice social workers and probation officers, and nursing staff working in correctional and mental health settings and in the community with service users who present a risk of harm to others or to themselves.