Workplace violence: practical policies and strategies for prevention, response, and recovery.

The design and maintenance of behaviorally safe workplaces represents a vital collaboration between industry and the mental health professions. Employers must take all threats to worker safety seriously and take appropriate action to deal with those threats. They must have measures in place to handle disciplinary matters, safe hiring and firing, escalating crises, ongoing emergencies, and aftermath effects. This article describes the essentials of research and practice in the field of workplace violence and provides guidelines for crisis counselors, trauma therapists, and emergency mental health clinicians who consult with organizations and who provide direct clinical services to victims of violence. Finally, workplace violence prevention and response comprise one facet of the comprehensive management consultation role in which increasing numbers of behavioral and mental health specialists will find themselves at the start of our new century.