VIOLENCE IN THE COMMUNITY - A STUDY OF VIOLENCE AND AGGRESSION IN HOMELESSNESS AND MENTAL-HEALTH DAY SERVICES

This study examined violence and aggression in five agencies providing day services in homelessness or mental health. Incident reporting;was used to test the hypotheses that aggression is associated with alcoho l problems, drug use, mental disorder, homelessness, history of violen ce, age and; sex. Agency policies and patterns to aggressive incidents were explored. Three agencies provided a sufficient number of inciden ts for analysis (involving 30 'aggressors'). A history of violence was associated with aggression in all three agencies; alcohol problems, d rug use and younger age were associated with aggression in at least on e agency; no association was found for mental disorder, homelessness o r sex. A degree of pattern to incidents could be discerned, with drink or drugs often involved, and exercises of authority or intervention i n client altercations being particularly likely to precede aggression towards staff. A variety of incidents were reported, from verbal argum ents to threats with a knife and serious physical assault. (C) 1997 Jo hn Wiley & Sons, Ltd.