Emergency treatment of the acutely disturbed and aggressive patient

Agitated and violent behavior has long been associated with mental illness in the public domain. This association is largely driven by stigma and misconception. It is important to remember that people with mental illnesses are far more often the victims of, rather than the perpetrators of violence, and the wrongly held belief that they are dangerous has been used to justify unnecessary incarceration and human rights abuse, sometimes on a systematic and officially sanctioned scale, and sometimes in an informal but pernicious way at the level of communities. Challenging these popular but false beliefs and promoting care and support based on the principle of “least restrictive practice” is an essential component of service development.