Building the Path to Home

Danger to the person and those around him or her

If you see behaviour that indicates that the person may harm himself or herself, or somebody else, or may experience significant deterioration in his or her ability to cope with the situation, you should act to ensure the person's safety.  However, you need to find a balance between:

• over-reacting because you don't understand what  causes the behaviour (e.g., the person may shout because he or she is angry but doesn't have strategies to express anger) and
• under-reacting and endangering the person or others.

If self-harm seems possible, ask questions to assess risk. For example, you can ask if the person has:

• talked about a plan to harm himself or herself or someone else
• tried to harm himself or herself in the past. (If so, how?)

If the situation is an emergency, call 911.

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