Risk assessment and management in psychiatric practice: inferring predictors of risk. A view from learning disability

Abstract

Concepts of risk assessment and management in psychiatry increasingly reflect public and professional anxieties that people with a mental disorder may harm others. The increase in likelihood, over the general population, of suicide is also fairly high in consciousness. For people with learning disabilities such risks will need managing from time to time but they appear no higher than for the general population, possibly rather lower. Other risks are much more prominent, best summarized as risks to those with learning disability from society. The double edge sword of 'prevention' through genetic counselling and its likely consequences cannot be ignored, but here special attention is given to risks of experience of physical and/or sexual abuse and risks of miscarriages of justice.