Battery Incidents and Batterers in a Maximum Security Hospital

A preliminary investigation into patterns of aggression in an Australian forensic psychiatric hospital

“…These factors include low levels of planned activities, low level and poor quality of staff-patient interactions, staff management problems and poor management of violent incidents (Drinkwater and Gudjonsson, 1989), restrictions upon liberty, irritating noise, boredom, teasing or insults by other inpatients, intrusions into personal space, limited opportunities for privacy, poor physical facilities, lack of effective therapy, and the presence of weapons (Dietz and Rada, 1982).…”

“…Extant results of these few studies show that there is a greater incidence of aggression among forensic hospital patients (Dietz and Rada, 1982;Larkin, Murtagh and Jones, 1988;Rasmussen and Levander, 1996;Torpy and Hall, 1993), that serious incidents are rare (Rasmussen and Levander, 1996) and that females tend to be more aggressive than males (Larkin et nl., 1988;Rasmussen and Levander, 1996). Consistent with the results obtained in studies of general psychiatric hospitals was the finding that a small proportion of patients are responsible for a disproportionately high number of incidents (Larkin et nl., 1988;Rasmussen and Levander, 1996) and that aggressive patients are younger and show more psychotic symptoms (Rasmussen and Levander, 1996).…”

Physical restraint in the management of violence and aggression in in-patient settings: A review of issues

“…It should be noted that attempts to apply physical restraint by unskilled staff can lead to escalation of the incident and injury to both staff and patients. Dietz & Rada (1982a), in their study of assault in a forensic psychiatry setting, found that just over 45% of all blows that hit patients or staff were executed during the actual restraint process. The lack of skill in restraint is implied in their comm ent `...[I]t is clear that non-injurious techniques for subduing patients m ight have an enorm ous impact on the rate of injury to both patients and officers' (Dietz & Rada, 1982b).…”

Long‐term medium‐security hospital units: a service gap of the 1990s?

“…Patients who have problems with violence commonly need large 'body buffer zones' (Dietz & Rada, 1982) and may deteriorate when closely confined. Then, too, many secure units have discovered that, although they may be independent institutions in terms of day-to-day security provision, they can only function as adequate hospital facilities by drawing on expertise from neighbouring facilities and where this is not possible, the service is at constant risk of impoverishment.…”