Barriers to and facilitators for using a risk assessment tool to prevent violent behaviour in patients with mental health conditions: Perspectives of health care providers.

Unlabelled: Regular assessment of risk of violence is shown to be effective in reducing violence in mental health services.

Purpose: To evaluate health care providers' use of a violence risk assessment tool on a mental health unit and the facilitators for and barriers to its use.

Methods: A descriptive study using the Dillman approach and informed by the Knowledge to Action framework was conducted.

Results: Twenty-six health care providers responded to the survey; 62% reported using the violence risk assessment tool available on their unit, but not on a daily basis. Common barriers were lack of knowledge of the tool, lack of resources and time, and negative attitudes toward patients. 42% of participants indicated the need for further training on violence risk assessment.

Conclusion: Despite high exposure to violence, health professionals were not conducting daily risk assessments. The barriers and facilitators identified provide direction for interventions that are necessary if the daily use of violence risk assessment tools is to be increased.