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Section VII represents practitioners and researchers interested in the clinical, scientific, and professional aspects of behavioral emergencies (i.e., situations in which a clinician has reason to believe that a patient or client is at risk of intentionally inflicting serious harm or death to self or others).

The purposes of the Section are:

1. To develop and improve the clinical assessment, treatment, and management of behavioral emergencies, and promote the scientific understanding of such emergencies through research on suicide, violence, and vulnerability to victimization by violence. To advocate for state-of-the-art graduate education and professional training in the clinical abilities and scientific knowledge psychologists require to evaluate and treat behavioral emergencies.
2. To further the understanding of the professional, forensic, and ethical issues involved in emergencies, as well as the clinical abilities needed to evaluate and manage them.

 

The Section provides a forum for the development and exchange of scientific information and research about clinical emergencies as well as about the underlying psychological contexts from which emergencies develop. The Section also seeks to understand the impact of crisis-oriented clinical work on the clinician and to assist clinicians in handling the often-intense psychological impact of emergency situations.

The Section exchanges clinical, professional, and scientific ideas, experiences, and information by newsletter and listserver, presents a program at APA meetings, advocates through Task Forces and Committees within APA Governance entities, and collaborates with organizations outside of APA that have similar missions.