Health care organisations in the United States have been urged to adopt new violence prevention strategies after the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) released comprehensive guidance to help identify, assess, and prevent targeted violence in health care settings.
The initiative is part of a broader effort to safeguard facilities, staff, and patients from intentional acts of violence and to promote proactive, behaviour‑based threat assessment.
The guidance, released on 9 March 2026, reflects a first‑of‑its‑kind collaborative effort between the FBI's Behavioural Analysis Unit (BAU) and the American Hospital Association (AHA). Seventeen subject‑matter experts, including law enforcement officials,mental health professionals, and medical practitioners, contributed to the development of the materials.
Health care environments, from hospitals to community clinics, have increasingly been recognised as vulnerable toacts of targeted violence. These can consist not only ofphysical assaults, but also threats, harassment, and other harmful behaviours directed at staff, patients, or the facilities themselves.
The FBI's guidance aims to help organisations move beyond reactive responses to violence by equipping managers and security personnel with tools to recognise early warning signs, assemble multidisciplinary behavioural threat assessment teams, and implement preventive interventions.
According to the FBI, the guides include templates, models, and implementation references designed to support hospitals and health systems in establishing formal behavioural threat assessment and management (BTAM) teams. These teams are intended to identify and mitigate potential threats before they escalate into actual acts of violence.
The publicly available resources consist of two core documents:
Both documents emphasise a proactive approach, including staff training to recognise behavioural indicators of concern and building partnerships with law enforcement and community stakeholders to ensure a coordinated response to potential threats.
Central to the FBI's guidance is the concept of behavioural threat assessment and management. This involves evaluating an individual's behaviour to determine whether they pose a risk of committing targeted violence, and implementing appropriate interventions to reduce that risk.
Behavioural threat assessment has been shown to be an effective measure in preventing violent incidents before they occur, particularly when teams are trained to observe concerning behaviours and when clear protocols are in place to report and manage potential threats.
Source: International Business Times UK
