Violence and Mental Illness

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Activity Dates: 05/08/2020 - 04/24/2023

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Target Audience

This course is designed for pharmacists, nurse practitioners or other health care professionals involved in the comprehensive medication management of psychiatric and/or neurological patients.

Session Summary

As reports of increasingly frequent mass-casualty shootings in America fill the news, calls to “fix the mental health system” collide in the public square with proposals to expand and enforce restrictive gun laws. In this lecture, Professor Jeffrey Swanson will describe the contours of violence in America from a public health perspective, placing our country’s problem in context with international comparisons. He will describe scientific evidence for how violence and mental illness are related, and not related; the limited accuracy of clinical predictions of violence; and the effectiveness of treatment to manage violence risk. Professor Swanson will unpack the unique challenges that gun-associated violence and suicide pose for mental health stakeholders, when media coverage of mass shootings reinforces negative and stigmatizing public perceptions of mental illness, and public safety goals must be balanced with individual gun rights concerns. Professor Swanson will explain federal and state legal restrictions on access to firearms that affect certain categories of people with mental illnesses, and will summarize evidence both for the effectiveness and shortcomings of these restrictions. He will describe expert consensus-based policy recommendations for reducing gun violence, including Extreme Risk Protection Order laws that are being widely adopted as an important piece in the policy puzzle of gun violence and suicide prevention.

Course Requirements

You will proceed through the following steps to satisfactorily complete this course:

  • Sign in (or create a FREE account).
  • Register for this course.
  • Review the full content of the activity and reflect upon its teachings.
  • Complete the post-test at the end of the activity no later than the closing activity date.
  • Complete the evaluation at the end of the activity.
  • If necessary, complete the post-test retest no later than the closing activity date.
  • Receive a passing grade (70%).
  • Provide the necessary details in your profile to ensure correct reporting by AAPP to CPE Monitor.

Upon successful completion, ACPE credit is reported within 24 hours to CPE Monitor although transcripts can be retrieved by participants online in their ACPE Transcript.

Faculty Information

Jeffrey Swanson, PhD

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Learning Objectives

  1. Describe the contours of the problem of violence in the United States from a public health perspective, and place the problem in context with international comparisons.
  2. Recall evidence for a link between serious mental illnesses and violent behavior -- including firearm-related violence and suicide -- within the context of the social environment and the multiple factors that contribute to violence in the population.
  3. Explain evidence for the validity and reliability of clinical predictions of violence, and the effectiveness of treatment and interventions to reduce violence risk in persons with serious mental illnesses.
  4. Identify current legal restrictions on the purchase and possession of firearms by certain categories of individuals with mental illnesses in the US, and consider evidence for the effectiveness and shortcomings of these restrictions as currently implemented. 
  5. Recognize expert-consensus recommendations for risk-based policies and laws to prevent gun violence and suicide, and their implications for mental health clinicians and mental health service systems.

Continuing Education Credit and Disclosures

Activity Dates: 05/08/2020 - 04/24/2023
ACPE Contact Hours: 1
ACPE Number: 0284-0000-20-027-H04-P (Knowledge)
Nursing Credit Reminder: Note that ACPE credit is accepted for ANCC Certification Renewal and AANPCB advanced practice provider content. For specific questions related to your organization's acceptance of ACPE continuing education units, please contact your organization directly.

ACPEThe College of Psychiatric and Neurologic Pharmacists is accredited by the Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education as a provider of continuing pharmacy education.

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Grant Support

 

Supported in part by the CPNP Foundation