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  • Essay / Violence in Mental Health Settings

    Table of ContentsNatures of ViolenceViolence Risk Assessment ToolsIdentifying Warning Signs In this case, a client named Wong Kai Long, a 56-year-old taxi driver. He lives with his wife and son in a pub. He worked as a bus driver for 23 years and was fired a year ago after being involved in a road accident. According to information gathered from Mr. Wong, Mr. Wong had mental problems for 3 months and repeatedly gave rise to paranoid ideas that the staff of the previous bus company had united to victimize him in the road accident. Additionally, his wife said he had trouble sleeping, mumbled to himself, and even scolded her and their son with foul language for no apparent reason. Three days earlier, he had growled on air as if hearing voices and verbally threatened to kill the people who were against him in the road accident. On the morning of September 5, 2017, Mr. Wong's wife discovered that Mr. Wong had drunk 8 cans of beer. After that, she had a heated conflict with him when she tried to stop him from continuing to drink beer. He first punched her, then tried to attack her with a knife after discovering she had called the police for help. She immediately left the house and did not suffer any serious injuries. Say no to plagiarism. Get Custom Essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”?Get Original Essay At 2:30 p.m., with the help of police officers, he was escorted to the Accident and Emergency Department (AED) from Princess Margaret Hospital, accompanied by his wife. and paramedics. When he arrived at AED, he was held on a stretcher and struggled vigorously. He was surrounded by the smell of alcohol, emotionally agitated and spoke loudly with foul language. He constantly claimed that he had been conspired by former employees of the bus company and expressed ideas of revenge while shouting into the air. Later, Mr Wong was then admitted to a Gazetted admissions ward at Kwai Chung Hospital under Section 31 of the Mental Health Ordinance. admitted into the room. In one study, violence was committed by 20% of people who posed a death threat in the previous 12 months (Warren, 2011). Patient violence poses serious risks to the patient, co-patients, and staff (Kettles, Woods, & Collins, 2001). Mr Wong was likely to commit serious violence against others. Healthcare workers are always at high risk of being attacked by patients. In a recent survey of 762 registered nurses, 54.2% of them experienced verbal abuse from patients and 29.9% of them experienced physical abuse from patients ( Speroni, Fitch, Dawson, Dugan, & Atherton, 2014). Particularly in mental health settings, the rate of violence against mental health professionals is three times higher than in general health care settings (Hartley & Ridenour, 2011). In a forensic psychiatric setting, 70% of nurses reported being assaulted in the past year (Kelly, Subica, Fulginiti, Brekke, & Novaco, 2015). Violence typically occurs when a patient is detained for observation and treatment (Flannery, LeVitre, Rego, & Walker, 2011). There is no doubt that the violent incident is disruptive to the caregiving process (Kettles, Woods & Collins, 2001). This deviates from the quality of care, the integrity of patients and the safety of nursing staff. The short-term consequences canbe head injuries, open wounds and bruises among co-patients and nurses (Daffern, Ogloff & Howells, 2003). Additionally, violence between co-patients can worsen other patients' mental states, such as anxiety and depression. Acutely, victims may suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder, accompanied by symptoms such as sleep disturbances, social withdrawal and difficulty trusting others. In the long term, aggressive patient behavior would harm the psychological and social well-being of nurses (Fujishiro, Gee, & De Castro, 2011). The impact of the patient's aggression towards the nurses was likely to have repercussions on the patient himself. Perhaps the nurse's performance in implementing health care and routine ward tasks could be disrupted (Bowers et al., 2011). Although many psychiatric nurses say violence is expected in their work, there is still a demand for prevention to ensure safety and delivery of therapeutic health care. Given the high incidence and serious consequences of violent patient behavior in psychiatric health care settings, assessment and prevention of patient violence is essential as a safety measure for all patients and staff. personal and important as a learning issue to expand knowledge (Underwood, 2017). Natures of Violence Inpatient violence refers to a range of behaviors or actions by patients who abuse, threaten, harm, and harm objects, co-patients, and nursing staff. (Nicholls, Brink, Greaves, Lussier, & Verdun-Jones, 2009) There are three forms of violence among hospitalized patients: verbal threats, physical aggression against objects, and physical aggression against other people. 3.1 Verbal threatsVerbal threat means that patients expressed a statement of intimidation to harm others, whether they actually intended to do so or committed a concrete act. For example, patients may make noise, shout angrily, swear viciously, use foul language in anger, and make clear threats of violence toward others, such as "I'm going to kill you." 3.2 Physical aggression against objects Patients may express aggression or throw a tantrum by throwing objects, kicking furniture, and marking the wall. Some patients may even break objects, break windows and set fires. 3.3 Physical aggression against other people Outraged patients may initially make threatening gestures and swing at other people (Jalil, Huber, Sixsmith & Dickens, 2017). Then they can grab their clothes, pull their hair and push it down. This type of violence can cause minor physical injuries to victims, such as bruises and sprains. For some violent attacks, this can cause serious physical injuries to victims, such as broken bones, deep lacerations, and internal injuries. Violence Risk Assessment Tools Dynamic Situational Aggression Assessment (DASA) has been used in different mental health settings, such as psychiatric intensive care units, voluntary and involuntary inpatient units (Griffith, Daffern and Godber, 2013). The DASA assessment is a concise and organized instrument developed to assess imminent aggressive behavior within the next 24 hours. It consists of seven elements: negative attitudes, impulsivity, irritability, verbal threats, sensitivity to perceived provocation, ease of anger when demands are,.