De-escalation of agitated people is a trained skill and a team effort: U of T expert
Published: October 24, 2017
It鈥檚 normal to want to run the other way when you come across somebody who is agitated, aggressive and yelling. But Dr. Brittany Poynter, an assistant professor in the department of psychiatry at the University of Toronto鈥檚 Faculty of Medicine, says there are strategies to deal with an agitated person.
Poynter, an emergency department psychiatrist at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH), says de-escalation is a skill that requires training and experience. It takes a team of people working together to make sure everyone is safe, she writes in the Toronto Star鈥檚 weekly column created by medical experts from the University of Toronto.
鈥淚 don鈥檛 recommend anyone try it alone.鈥
When someone鈥檚 behaving in an aggressive or threatening way during a mental health or emotional crisis, 鈥渢hey鈥檙e probably scared," she writes. "Their actions are driven by fear, rather than a desire to harm anyone.鈥
She also advises family members who face an escalating situation with a loved one experiencing psychosis to call 911 sooner rather than later.
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