Clinical domain
Risk Management
Risk scenarios test whether you assess before you act. They present a disclosure — self-harm, suicidal thoughts, harm to others, safeguarding — and ask what you do with incomplete information and no time to consult.
What makes these scenarios hard
Safety against autonomy and trust. Acting too fast can breach confidentiality, damage the alliance and remove the client’s agency; acting too slowly can be catastrophic. Almost every strong answer assesses first.
What a strong answer usually does
- Assess the actual level of risk before escalating. Options that jump straight to crisis services usually rank below those that establish what is happening.
- Be transparent: telling the client what you have to do, and why, is nearly always better than doing it behind them.
- A promise not to act is not a risk management plan.
- Confidentiality has limits, and those limits should have been explained before they were needed.
The standards behind it
- HCPC 6.1 — take all reasonable steps to reduce the risk of harm
- HCPC 6.2 — do not do anything, or allow anything, that puts health at risk
- HCPC 5.1, 5.2 — treat information as confidential; disclose only where justified
- HCPC 7.1 — report concerns about safety or wellbeing
12 scenarios in this domain.
Practise Risk Management