Explain risk assessment and risk management. Discuss how risk management combines science and other social factors.
Risk assessment and risk management
Risk is the chance that the outcome differs from what is expected. Usually, when we talk about business risk, we are referring to possible negative impact and consequences of an event or decision. Risk management is the macro-level process of assessing, analyzing, prioritizing, and making a strategy to mitigate threats to an organization`s assets and earnings. Risk assessment is a meso-level process within risk management. It aims to break down threats into identifiable categories and define all the potential impact of each risk. Risk assessment provides information on potential health or ecological risks, and risk management is the action taken based on consideration of that and other information, as follows: scientific factors provide the basis for the risk assessment, including information drawn from toxicology, chemistry, epidemiology, ecology, and statistics.
In clinical populations, the suicide rate of patients with borderline personality disorder (BPD) is estimated between 8% and 10%, a rate far greater than that in the general population. While suicidal tendencies in BPD patients is a multi-determined phenomenon, a key factor that leads to the higher than average mortality rate could be the impulsive trait common among BPD patients. Hence, a general consensus highlights that by reducing the impulsive personality characteristic, this will ultimately reduce the high risk nature of this disorder. In light of this, Dialectical Behavioural Treatment (DBT) – an adapted version of cognitive behavioural therapy – was developed to specifically reduce suicidality in BPD patients by applying behavioural techniques to control impulsivity. This essay reviewed previously conducted randomised controlled trials, to investigate the efficacy of DBT in treating suicidality in BPD patients through reducing impulsivity, as well as examined the limitations of this intervention. The findings indicated DBT to be more effective in several outcome measures, namely self-harm, parasuicidal behaviours and suicidal ideation, when comparing DBT with treatment as usual and community treatment by experts. Additionally, DBT’s mindfulness module was found to be a salient component in reducing impulsive self-injurious behaviour. While the efficacy of DBT is undisputed, this intervention is still an extensive and costly treatment. Hence, dismantling studies were conducted to identify the treatment component most significant to treat suicidality in BPD and findings revealed shortened variants of DBT are more cost-effective and are just as effective in yielding significant improvements.
INTRODUCTION
Suicide risk is a frequent companion in the treatment of Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD); a disorder that has a prevalence of 1-2% in the general population, and is present in 10% of psychiatric outpatients and 20% of inpatients (Lieb, et al., 2004). According to a study conducted by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health S