Responding to aggression in long term care: lessons from five case studies.

Violence by patients against staff has been a growing concern in hospitals not only in the U.S., but in Canada and the U.K. as well. Such violence is not limited to hospitals, but is on the increase in long term care facilities, thanks, in part, to a growing population of patients with dementia. Very little information about programs that deal with patient violence in long term care facilities has been available. The following article, which describes a multi-year project in five British Columbia nursing homes, provides considerable insight for health care managers on the many different aspects of long term care violence and methods which staff can employ to curb or prevent it.