Survey of aggressive incidents experienced by community mental health staff.

The phenomenon of aggression experienced by community mental health staff is explored in the present study. Qualitative and quantitative data were elicited in a self-report questionnaire completed by 92 community mental health workers from a metropolitan Area Health Service. Findings indicate that 96% of community mental health workers experienced some form of aggression in the course of their work, 25% felt that their life had been threatened and 7% sustained physical injuries. Issues in need of attention are the normalization of aggression and subsequent lack of incident reporting, and the appropriateness of staff safety training for community mental health settings.