Clinical Psychologists' Firearm Risk Management Perceptions and Practices

The purpose of this study was to investigate the current perceptions and practices of discussing firearm risk management with patients diagnosed with selected mental health problems. A three-wave survey was mailed to a national random sample of clinical psychologists and 339 responded (62%). The maj...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of community health 2010-02, Vol.35 (1), p.60-67
Main Authors: Traylor, Andrea, Price, James H, Telljohann, Susan K, King, Keith, Thompson, Amy
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Aged
Attitude of Health Personnel
Clinical Competence
Clinical Psychology
Community and Environmental Psychology
Counseling
Data Collection
Ethics
Female
Firearm accidents & safety
Firearms
Graphs
Health Problems
Health Promotion and Disease Prevention
Humans
Male
Management
Medicine
Medicine & Public Health
Mental disorders
Mental Health
Mentally Ill Persons
Middle Aged
ORIGINAL PAPER
Patients
Perceptions
Polls & surveys
Professional Practice - statistics & numerical data
Professional Training
Professional-Patient Relations
Psychologists
Psychology, Clinical
Risk
Risk Management
Safety
Suicide
Weapons
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:The purpose of this study was to investigate the current perceptions and practices of discussing firearm risk management with patients diagnosed with selected mental health problems. A three-wave survey was mailed to a national random sample of clinical psychologists and 339 responded (62%). The majority (78.5%) believed firearm safety issues were greater among those with mental health problems. However, the majority of clinical psychologists did not have a routine system for identifying patients with access to firearms (78.2%). Additionally, the majority (78.8%) reported they did not routinely chart or keep a record of whether patients owned or had access to firearms. About one-half (51.6%) of the clinical psychologists reported they would initiate firearm safety counseling if the patients were assessed as at risk for self-harm or harm to others. Almost half (46%) of clinical psychologists reported not receiving any information on firearm safety issues. Thus, the findings of this study suggest that a more formal role regarding anticipatory guidance on firearms is needed in the professional training of clinical psychologists.
ISSN:0094-5145
1573-3610
DOI:10.1007/s10900-009-9200-6