Civil Commit to Forensics?

Sherda · Nov 7, 2004

yes do charge this patient. I do not advocate to charge a psychotic delusional hallucinationing pt, but what you describe needs to be charged - there are to many incidents where staff are considered punching bags and it is part of our job IT IS NOT!! You may runinto resistance from the judical system - at least that happens a lot here in Canada but stick with it.

There is a patient who has assualted several nurses and they are looking into pressing legal charges against this patient. The patient is on a civil commit on a regular adult psych ward within the state hospital system which also runs the forensic program. What are the chances of the charges coming to light and the patient being sent from a adult unit to a forensic wardwithin the same system? What do you, as an RN, feel about a RN pressing charges against a patient?

Not to give too much detail but the patient is Borderline and not 'psychotic'. Thus the reason they feel the need to have the patient face up for what they are doing.

Any information would be great!

FutureRNMichael · Nov 15, 2004

Thanks for the response. I totally agree!! Anyone else with additional info on this topic?

SusanJean · Nov 15, 2004

Thanks for the response. I totally agree!! Anyone else with additional info on this topic?

I think it depends upon the state.

While I am not a nurse (yet) I have worked in mental health -- and if a pt crosses the line and strikes out, I believe charges should be pressed. IMO, this is sometimes a way, too, to get court ordered tx beyond the hospitalization time.

SJ

elkpark · Nov 15, 2004

The nurses are certainly welcome to press charges, the same as any other citizen who has been assaulted, but, as far as I know, the outcome would not be that the patient would be transferred to the forensic unit of the hospital. He would be charged and would have to appear in court, but that would be entirely separate from his current commitment to the hospital. The police would come to the hospital, take statements from the witnesses, and I would guess that the patient would be arrested and arraigned when he is discharged from the hospital.

margo123 · Nov 17, 2004

I work in Indiana on an acute adult psych ward. One of our security guards got slugged pretty hard by a patient and pressed charges. The patient was arrested following discharge from the hospital. He went to court and was given a sentence in the local county jail. The patient had a history of being psychotic at times. None of the staff felt that he was psychotic at the time he hit the guard. The pt also had a hx of behavioral problems and explosive temper.

Bjo · Dec 3, 2004

I work in a state run psych hospital in Ohio and we have forensic and civil patients on the same ward. We have had the same situation happen with both types of patients. At our hospital, it depends on how much the prosecutor is willing to do. We had one such person as you are talking about and the staff and other patients were assaulted numerous times over a two year period. Several competency evals were done and this person was not considered to be mentally ill!! Yet we continued to readmit over and over. Our county wouldn't do anything with it, we sent the person to a sister hospital in another county and got her back within 60 days, then finally, the third county picked up the original charges ( patient was a police hold initially and the charges were suspended because of hospitalization). Happy days for the staff and other patients, patient ended up getting two years in prison for what she had done two years prior. But, bittersweet is the fact that for all of the abuse and battering of the staff and other patients, there were no consequences.

Looking for some info(For my own personal use) regarding the status of civilally commited patients who commit crimes in the hospital.
There is a patient who has assualted several nurses and they are looking into pressing legal charges against this patient. The patient is on a civil commit on a regular adult psych ward within the state hospital system which also runs the forensic program. What are the chances of the charges coming to light and the patient being sent from a adult unit to a forensic wardwithin the same system? What do you, as an RN, feel about a RN pressing charges against a patient?
Not to give too much detail but the patient is Borderline and not 'psychotic'. Thus the reason they feel the need to have the patient face up for what they are doing.
Any information would be great!

kandya · Feb 21, 2006

Hi All,

I was wondering if any of you have policies that address the issue of staff who have been assaulted by patients. If so, would you be willing to share?

Thanks.

extrakul · Feb 23, 2006

Hi, press charges.... it dosent realy solve the problem it may only pass it allong to the forensic side of things. But its allways good to have dokumentation of incidents in case of staf getting hurt and so on. Itt also good to analyse rutins on the ward. How is the conflict managment working. How did this hapen and so on. I work in a forensic ward in sweden so things may be diffrent. If somthing hapens we fill in a incident report so we can analys wath hapend and why.... under ore overmedication, personal conflicts beetven patients ore personell.. it dosent take much to gett someone startet.... Well a problem in civil is probably a problem in forensic too, perhaps a presecution would work as a waking cal to your patient.

GooeyRN, ADN, BSN, CNA, LPN, RN · Feb 23, 2006

If you press charges, will you get fired? (If it is a non union hospital) Where I used to work pressing charges wasn't allowed if you wanted to keep your job. They wanted to keep the patient happy so they would return and get the $.

extrakul · Feb 24, 2006

Hum... things are deffenitly diffrent over ther. You cant gett fired in sweden if you press charges. even if you are not a member of the union...

BRemus · Feb 24, 2006

I work with civilly committed sex offenders and if one of them assaults any staff member the police are called and charges are pressed I believe that it is now even considered a felony to assault staff in our facility and the patient goes to court and then jail hope this helps