A New Attitude Toward Hospital Security: The Wellness Approach

How It Works
When a report comes in initially, the information is immediately provided to the behavior intervention team, which is made up of representatives from the legal department, HR, risk management, employee health, the police department and other departments. The team then reviews the information and compares it with the records on the individual they have in their particular department.

Each team member reviews what is being communicated (verbal, written or via social media), the individual’s behavior and the context of the situation. They then look at any triggers. Perhaps there is the anniversary of a divorce or death of a child. The person could be on the verge of being terminated.

The team then looks at stabilizers, which would inhibit someone from acting out.

Not all of the referrals require a response from the threat assessment team. Only about 2-3 percent of the cases require full threat assessment unit response. “If there’s an actual imminent threat or threat we can see, or we’re not sure if we have to move on it, then you engage the threat assessment piece,” Adcox says.

RELATED: Spotlight on Director of the Year Finalist William Adcox

Even if nothing happens, these cases remain open for quite some time. That way, officers can check on the individuals periodically to determine if anything changes, such as an individual who stops taking medication for a mental illness.

Results Are Impressive
There have been numerous times where Adcox’s team has intervened to save lives and, when UTP-H gets involved with employees, save their jobs.

One of these involved an MD Anderson employee with an excellent work record who was a Gulf War veteran with PTSD. He was experiencing problems at his home at UT Housing, which resulted in officers being called to his residence. The new threat management unit intervened and took him to the employee assistance program (EAP) where he agreed to go to the VA for help. After being hospitalized for 10 days, he returned home and hasn’t had any more incidents. In fact, he called the threat management unit to thank them.

Adcox believes this type of strategy not only prevents crime but also helps with employee productivity.

“It’s a bit early, but I’ll go out on a limb here and say that if we’re getting this many cases and getting these people some real help, I’ll bet their performance and productivity go up, and the overall health of the organization improves,” he says.

“We still have a ways to go,” Adcox adds. “We need to break down some of the barriers to effective communication. We need to reduce the stigma associated with mental illness and the need for people to seek treatment. We need to enhance our victim support systems and the resources we put into them. And we need to develop better tools to assist with quick assessments.”

That being said, UTP-H has come a long way in only a short time to embrace a truly proactive approach – one that appears to be very effective.

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