Best Practice in Managing Risk

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This framework document is intended to guide mental health practitioners who work with service users to manage the risk of harm. It sets out a framework of principles that should underpin best practice across all mental health settings, and provides a list of tools that can be used to structure the often complex risk management process. The philosophy underpinning this framework is one that balances care needs against risk needs, and that emphasises:
• positive risk management;
• collaboration with the service user and others involved in care;
• the importance of recognising and building on the service user’s strengths; and
• the organisation’s role in risk management alongside the individual practitioner’s.
Organisations, care teams and individual practitioners should benchmark their current practice against the principles set out here, and consider ways of moving towards embedding these principles in daily practice. They should also examine the list of tools given here and consider how their practice could be improved by incorporating one or more of the tools into their risk assessment and risk management practice.

http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/+/www.dh.gov.uk/prod_consum_dh/groups/dh_digitalassets/@dh/@en/documents/digitalasset/dh_076512.pdf

Related Topics

  • Cultural Competency/Adaptations
  • Behavioral Health
  • Medical Care
  • Treatment Models
  • Clinical Tools