Mental health practitioners working in acute and emergency settings occasionally evaluate patients who have made threats of or appear to be at risk of perpetrating a mass shooting. Fortunately, these events are rare, though their infrequency can lead to attrition of clinical skill and knowledge of best practices when they do arise. Such encounters confer an elevated risk for patients and their communities, and a standardized protocol for clinicians based on the best evidence and expert consensus can mitigate the risk of both violence and medicolegal liability.This session will introduce a novel clinical tool to guide clinicians through such encounters, based on the paper "Evaluating threats of mass shootings in the psychiatric setting" by Amy Barnhorst, MD and Jack Rozel, MD. It will include: a) special considerations for mental health evaluations b) indications for psychiatric hospitalization c) engagement and information sharing with law enforcement and other relevant parties who can help mitigate threats d) how HIPAA and the Duties to Warn and/or Protect ("Tarasoff duties") may apply e) civil protective orders for firearm removal, including Extreme Risk Protection Orders or "red flag laws" f) institutional and individual risk management.
Learning Objectives:- Learn what clinical evaluation should be completed when a patient makes threats of or is at risk of perpetrating a mass shooting.
- Develop a tailored plan for an interdisciplinary response that includes relevant school officials, employers, law enforcement, institutional risk management, family members and other social supports, and is within legal information sharing parameters.
- Apply various clinical and legal tools available to address treatable mental health conditions, harden targets, and remove firearms from the situation.
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