Home -> Law Blog Directory -> Legal Research Blogs -> New York Supreme Court Criminal Term Library

Legal Research

: New York Supreme Court Criminal Term Library

Many Mental Health Professionals Must Face Violence

By David Badertscher, PLL

Source: Crime & Justice News

'Mental health professionals have discovered,

sometimes the hard way, that delving deeply into

people's feelings can be dangerous, says the New

York Times. As police searched for a man who killed a

psychologist with a meat cleaver and other knives -

and seriously injured another therapist, who heard

their struggle from his nearby office and went to

help - therapists said they had learned to develop

their own physical and psychological defenses

against violence. They conceded that a shrewd and

determined attacker who appears normal could fool

them.

It was not clear if the killer was a patient or a patient's

relative, or if he had some other connection to the

victims. When Christina Newhill, an associate

professor at the University of Pittsburgh, surveyed

1,129 therapeutic workers nationwide in 2003, 58

percent said they had had to deal with violence,

though only 24 percent of those said they had actually

been attacked. Twenty-five percent of those who had

to deal with violence said clients had damaged or

destroyed property, while half said the episodes did

not go beyond threats. Gary Arthur, a professor

emeritus at Georgia State University, surveyed all

6,400 licensed therapists in Georgia in 2001. Of the

1,132 who responded, 14 had been shot at (none hit),

6 attacked with a knife, 209 pushed or shoved, 112

slapped and 87 hit by objects thrown at them. 'The

results were scary,' he said. 'Our profession remains

very high on the list for risk of danger.'"

New York Times - http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?e=001SsWgn0tYYJ0fe3a_tcNDnoCElvFwOn4g9GGWh4wsgxiRS3L_-twxq9UftpDTCFxFY67aZDfNgQlZahWdaYOFLeIxE-jCqEFOb2E0duD9_uHY_L40fvsi8a5Ntj9hgv9sGeeFxZ3lKJklvG2BQhG72i43eoQsEpwg2j_9w5Sl-ptSnLQbsC2_bW5JkuIwNAt5Eas-kk-WdA4=

Full post as published by New York Supreme Court Criminal Term Library on February 14, 2008 (boomark / email).