Introduction: Management of violence and aggressive remains a challenge to mental health care providers. Thousands of people whose aggression is due to serious mental illness are secluded or restrained every day. Agitation among psychiatric inpatients (particularly those diagnosed with schizophrenia or bipolar disorder) is common, and unless recognized early and managed effectively, can rapidly escalate to potentially dangerous behaviors, including physical violence. Aims & objective: The objective of this study was to find whether an aggression management training programme for mental health care providers would be effective in improving their knowledge and practice regarding aggression management of patient with psychiatric disorder. Methods  &  Materials: A convenient sample of 30 mental health care providers including 12 staff nurses and 18 ward attendants involved in direct patient care were included in the study. One group pre-test post-test study design was adopted to find the effectiveness of the training programme. One day training programme was organized which included lecture, discussion and demonstration regarding aggression management of mentally ill patients who were hospitalized. Knowledge questionnaire was developed by the investigators which was used to assess the knowledge of participants regarding aggression management before and after the training programme. The questionnaire includes 20 items, and the maximum and minimum possible scores was 20 and 0 respectively. Results: Majority (67%) of the participants were male (n=20). The mean pretest knowledge score regarding aggression management was 7.97 ± 2.8 and the post-test score was 11.63±1.9. There was significant improvement in the knowledge score regarding aggression management from before and after the training programme (<0.001; paired sample ‘t’ test). The result suggests the need for aggression management training programmes for mental health care providers that can lead effective management of aggression in psychiatric hospitals.
Keywords: Aggression management; Aggression management training