Matthew Kruse, MD
Medical Director, Competency Attainment Program
Direct Care and Treatment, State of Minnesota
Adjunct Assistant Professor
University of Minnesota Medical School
I was invited to give a talk at the Alabama Psychiatric Physicians Association’s (APPA) Spring Meeting in Florida this April. As a psychiatrist practicing in Minnesota and recognizing that in Minneapolis, April is still deep in the throes of winter, I jumped at the chance to present on “Patient-on-Staff Assaults,” less than a mile from a gorgeous beach on the Gulf Coast.
I first developed this talk a few years ago while working in a state hospital where such violence occurs far too frequently (which in my mind, is any amount more than zero), and presented it in its original form at the spring meeting of my own district branch, the Minnesota Psychiatric Society. Ultimately, I’ve found that a discussion on how to stratify the different types of inpatient violence and aid clinical and legal decision-making in its wake has been helpful for a wide variety of audiences and disciplines. This observation has contributed to my continuing to revise, update, and refine this talk as I presented this topic multiple times since its inception. Indeed, at the APPA meeting, the talk was well received and led to a rich question and answer period that brought us well past our allotted time.
Indeed, forensic psychiatrists are some of the best writers in medicine. And as all writers know, drafting is essential to helping a piece of writing become everything it is capable of. Presentations are no different, and I am curious to ask my colleagues in Midwest AAPL, which of your presentations do you find so meaningful and important, that you keep revising and updating them, watching them grow and evolve over the years?
Please send submissions to
We look forward to hearing from you!
Midwest AAPL Executive Committee, 2023