Implementing a Violence Risk Screening Protocol in a Civil Psychiatric Setting: Preliminary Results and Clinical Policy Implications.

ABSTRACT

Comprehensive violence risk assessment can require substantial time and resources, which may be challenging for an already strapped public mental health system. Herein, we describe a naturalistic study of the Fordham Risk Screening Tool ("FRST"), a violence risk screening instrument designed to quickly identify individuals for whom thorough violence risk assessment would be advisable. All patients admitted to one of three state hospitals during the study period received FRST screening and HCR-20V3 risk assessment. The FRST reliably and accurately identified individuals deemed high risk by the HCR-20V3. The implications of these findings, and the broader clinical policy choices are reviewed.