Risk assessment and management

Abstract

This chapter offers guidance relating to risk assessment and management in practice. As a result, risk assessment and management represents one of the growth areas in forensic practice both in mainstream psychiatry and in learning disability services. It considers clinical risk, assessing risk, communications, levels of authority, differences of opinion, security, systems for managing security and safety and risk management of the individual client. It is argued that these three elements are interrelated, thereby producing eight categories that determine clinical risk management, from high social impact, high probability and high certainty to low social impact, low probability and low certainty. Assessment of risk and risk management is not an exact science. Awareness of the fact that the knowledge base for risk assessment is at best partial, and at worst misleading, should underpin the process of assessment, management and review.