ABSTRACT
The purpose of the Home Treatment Team (HTT) is to respond rapidly and appropriately to those experiencing a mental health crisis. This has been found to be effective in reducing hospital admissions and is popular with patients who value the option of being offered home visits instead of hospital admission. Most staff in mental health work with high-risk situations but this is the main focus of the HTT. The authors used interpretative phenomenological analysis to explore how the staff of a well-established HTT experience risk. Twenty-four staff attended five focus groups over a two-month period. Invited to talk about risk in general all of the groups focused on unusual risk events; aggression and violence and challenging suicidal behaviour. The discussions revealed the different ways that professional identity can impact on risk management. The findings have the potential to help staff to work in a more self-aware way and to help teams develop more effective procedures.
