Team approach lowers behavioral health-related violence

St. Louis Children’s Hospital faced instances of violence among its psychiatric patients. In a May Voice of Nursing Leadership article, nursing leaders explain how they created a team to address and support the management of patients exhibiting acute crisis events within the pediatric psychiatric unit and throughout the hospital. They implemented a crisis prevention and response program and trained staff on verbal de-escalation and decision-making tools. Their efforts significantly reduced the number of behavioral health-related workplace violence events from 2021 to 2022.