Short- to medium-term risk assessment in psychiatric hospitals is a topic of clinical relevance that deserves attention from the research community. In this paper, the Short Term Assessment of Risk and Treatability, or START (Webster, Martin, Brink, Nicholls, & Middleton, 2004), a new structured instrument for judgment of dynamic risk and treatment factors is briefly described. Internal reliability properties are analyzed and the predictive validity for severe violence in a Norwegian high secure psychiatric hospital is investigated. The results indicate that the START has promise as a valid tool for short-term violence risk assessment. The authors make an argument for the importance and relevance of dynamic risk and strength factors in the short to medium term. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)
In this paper the authors illustrate how they have developed the contributions made by Richard Lucas towards the psychoanalytic understanding of psychosis and in particular his use of the concepts of psychotic and non-psychotic parts of the personality. They discuss how they have developed these ideas in their own work within forensic institutions where the psychotic part of the personality can be so in the ascendancy that little communication is possible with the non-psychotic part of the patient. These situations are often beyond words, and containment might have to involve limit-setting in the form of physical boundaries and the use of seclusion. It is our intention to show how meaning can be created for staff even when this is beyond the patients’ grasp; and how, through the use of reflective practice, we can help staff to recover their equilibrium and move towards a more integrated picture of the patient. This allows staff to become more available to their patients as containing objects. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)
Purpose: Assessment is a core skill of clinical and forensic psychology practice and...