Case example
Background
‘Dave’ (not his real name) is a 45-year-old man with mild
learning disabilities. He lives alone but receives help from a
support worker for several hours a week, who assists him in
his weekly shopping, domestic chores and managing his
finances. He does not smoke or drink alcohol. He was
referred to our clinical psychology service following discussions
with his support worker about problems he had
had for many years in becoming aggressive with other
people at his workplace, at social events, and with people in
the community.
When I first met Dave, he and his support worker
reported that he had been involved in three physical fights
within the last 6 months. In the previous year he had been
involved with police because of this aggression on about
twelve occasions, having assaulted a police officer during at
least one of these incidents. He had spent several nights in police custody following these events, but had never been
prosecuted. He had a reputation amongst people who knew
him as a troublemaker, and he reported that many people
avoided talking to him or including him in things because of
his ‘short fuse’. He had recently been suspended from his
supported work placement because of allegations that he
had physically assaulted a female colleague.