This program has emerged through a number of transformations. The original program was designed and piloted at Rusk State Hospital in 1980 and was called "Foundations of Verbal and Physical Intervention," or FVPI. Rusk was the ideal site for developing the program because it served literally every client population in Texas, including children and adolescent, geriatric, people with acute and chronic mental illness, chemical dependency, mental retardation, and the criminally insane.

To see whether the program was achieving our goals of safety for our clients and staff members, I checked data on the number and severity of injuries to staff and those we served as well as the number of worker compensation claims filed related to aggressive behavior. The data showed that injury rates went down as more people were trained to use the program. Because of its positive results, on September 29, 1981, the Texas Department of Mental Health and Mental Retardation adopted the program, and it became required training for all service staff as "Prevention and Management of Aggressive Behavior," or PMAB®.

This trend of fewer and less severe injuries from aggression continued, and in 1985 the Attorney General of Texas presented a special citation to me acknowledging the program's benefit to the citizens of Texas. That citation reads in part:

Mr. Larry Hampton of Rusk State Hospital has earned the Attorney General's Meritorious Safety Award by having met all necessary requirements.

Mr. Hampton was the principal author and training director of the Prevention and Management of Aggressive Behavior (PMAB®) Program, which was implemented within the Texas Department of Mental Health and Mental Retardation (TDMHMR) system in 1980.

The program's primary intent was to minimize both client and employee injuries as well as reduce Worker's Compensation claims. During the last five years, this goal has been realized by achieving significant reductions for client and employee injury rates as well as Worker's Compensation claims.

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