The National Health Service and the Risk Assessment Techniques Research Paper

The National Health Service and the Risk Assessment Techniques - Research Paper Example The incident took place on an eight-bed ward for female admissions in a small National Health Service (NHS) institution. Dorothy Perkins has a history of considerable antisocial conduct. She is a thirty-five-year-old woman who has been nursed within this inpatient facility for almost three years and will be referred to as. Ms Perkins was admitted from Her Majesty’s Prison Service following ruling from the Crown Court that she requires a period of assessment after the attempted murder of her community care worker. Ms Perkins presents as floridly psychotic with underlying persecutory delusions and presents as unstable in her mood. Her view is that other people (staff, visitors, family and the common public) are plotting against her and attempting to murder her. Despite this, she is able to forge a level of therapeutic alliance with some staff members, in particular, male staff members. She is verbally abusive and with her large physical stature is intimidating towards the other service users on the ward and staff members. Her abuse is usually targeted towards female staff members, and she has assaulted another female service user on the ward during this admission. The multi-disciplinary team has ruled that any episodes of inappropriate conduct from Ms Perkins whilst she is around the communal areas of the ward must result in a period of ‘time-out’. In accordance with the Code of Practice to the Mental Health Act 1983 (1999), ‘time out’ is a behaviour modification technique which denies a patient, for a period of no more than 15 minutes.