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Challenging behaviour in the elderly—monitoring violent incidents
Author(s) -
Almvik Roger,
Rasmussen Kirsten,
Woods Phil
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
international journal of geriatric psychiatry
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.28
H-Index - 129
eISSN - 1099-1166
pISSN - 0885-6230
DOI - 10.1002/gps.1474
Subject(s) - aggression , norwegian , incident report , psychology , injury prevention , suicide prevention , occupational safety and health , human factors and ergonomics , nursing homes , psychiatry , poison control , medicine , medical emergency , clinical psychology , nursing , computer security , linguistics , philosophy , pathology , computer science
Objective To explore the frequency and nature of violent incidents in psychogeriatric wards and nursing homes in terms of type and severity of incidents, what provoked the incidents, and what kind of measure was needed to stop the aggression. Material and methods Aggressive behaviour of the study group was monitored using the Staff Observation Aggression Scale‐Revised (SOAS‐R( in two Norwegian nursing homes and two geriatric psychiatric wards for a period of three months. Severity of incidents were monitored with the built‐in severity scoring system in SOAS‐R. Results During the study period 32 out of the 82 patients were reported to be violent. The majority of the incidents were generated by a minority of the patients. Physical injury to the staff as a consequence of the aggression was extremely rare. Situations where the client was denied something were the most provocative ones and a substantial number of incidents occurred at bath/shower times. Talking to the patient was the most frequent measure used to stop the aggression, but more intrusive measures were also used. Conclusions A substantial proportion of the incidents were associated with personal care tasks, suggesting a crucial role for communication difficulties and a focus for staff training. We suggest that personal care situations should be added to the variable list in future research. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.