Despite extensive research into risk assessment in mental health settings, a consensus has yet to be reached on the best way to apply the findings from this literature to everyday practice. There have been recent positive developments in the field of quantifying risk, but it remains unclear how to use a quantitative estimate in the provision of safe care to an individual patient. Some researchers alternatively advocate representing risk qualitatively (e.g. formulation), but how practitioners can best use these representations in their clinical roles has also not yet been determined. Consequently, researchers have started to turn their attention to how to integrate risk assessment approaches into practice, and in particular how to use the output of risk assessments to improve clinical decision-making.

This Research Topic aims to collate original and review articles that focus on the implementation of risk assessment approaches to real life clinical practice. The key goals are to enhance understanding of (i) how the output of a risk assessment should be best used to inform clinical practice, and (ii) the appropriate research methodology to test the effectiveness of risk assessments on improving the safety of clinical practice.

We welcome empirical, theoretical and policy-related manuscripts on themes including, but are not limited to:
- Integrating risk assessments in clinical practice
- Using risk assessments to support clinical decision-making
- Using quantitative estimates of risk to guide clinical decision-making
- Using qualitative representations of risk to guide clinical decision-making
- Methodologies for studying the implementation of risk assessments in routine practice
- Examining the effectiveness of risk assessments
- Exploring types of outcomes in studies of risk assessment in practice
- Risk assessments, clinical practice and complexity
- Risk assessments in complex mental health systems
- Risk assessment as interventions
- Conceptualisation of risk by clinicians
- Human factors and risk assessments
- Risk and decision-making thresholds

Are you interested in contributing a manuscript to this Research Topic?

Risk Assessment and Clinical Decision-Making in Mental Health