Emotional Responses of Staff to Assault in a Pediatric State Hospital

In this study, we examined the emotional responses of staff to patient-on-staff assault at a state inpatient psychiatric hospital for children and adolescents. Staff (n 93) completed self-report measures assessing general psychiatric functioning and symptoms of depression and anxiety. Staff assaulted by patients in the past six months (n 59) were compared with those who had not been assaulted (n 34). Direct-care staff were more likely to be assaulted than were other staff. Assaulted staff were more likely to report prior nonsexual assault by a stranger, higher anxiety, more somatic concerns, greater vulnerability and lack of control, and higher levels of impairment at work and were more likely to consider terminating employment than were non-assaulted staff. Our cross-sectional data suggest several differences in assaulted versus non-assaulted staff. Further studies are needed to determine whether differences in anxiety and traumatic events precede assaults or represent antecedent risk factors for being assaulted. J Am Acad Psychiatry Law 36:360–8, 2008 Violence on psychiatric inpatient units is a frequent and serious problem.1 In psychiatric health care set-tings, assault of staff by patients is the most frequent type of assault1,2 and has merited study of the rela