I work in an outpatient setting. I have a patient who I generally have a very good rapport with. For reference he is autistic without any intellectual deficit I am aware of. We spoke casually today for about 10 minutes. I needed to return to my tasks so I let him know although I had enjoyed our chat I needed to return to work. He was not ready to end our conversation and in response, he threatened my family. I know this patient very well and I know he has absolutely no means of identifying my family or carrying out these threats. He was absolutely adamant that what he was saying was not wrong and insisted I agreed. I was very calm but would not agree because I thought it best not enforce a delusional world view. The situation quickly escalated, he began self harming and needed to be transported to the hospital. In retrospect I feel I could have handled this differently, I think he backed himself into a corner and needed a way to gracefully exit and instead I doubled down. What would be a strategy to handle this without endorsing his threats?   submitted by   /u/selly_seashells [link]   [comments]