Threat Assessment and Management

Criminal and Civil Forensic Assessment

Team Development and Program Implementation

Group Training and Individual Coaching

Individual Interventions

Additional Services for Attorneys, Mental Health Professionals, and Threat Assessment Professionals

 

Threat Assessment and Management

I offer threat assessment and management services to organizations concerned about risks for violence posed by employees or members of the public. Working in real time with an organization as information about a case becomes known, I use evidence-based procedures to analyze those data, identify gaps in the knowledge base about the person of concern, and make concrete and operationally based risk management recommendations. Formal threat assessment reports often are helpful for clients to assist with required documentation and internal management priorities.

 

Criminal and Civil Forensic Assessment

I have experience conducting assessments and writing reports to address numerous psycho-legal questions, such as:

• Violence risk assessment
• Fitness (competency) to stand trial
• Criminal responsibility (sanity)
• Sentencing and mitigation
• Juvenile sentencing/re-sentencing
• Psychological injury

 

Team Development and Program Implementation

Knowing how to administer a risk assessment tool is an important part of a successful threat assessment and management program, but it’s only one of several major components. Using research supported principles and practices, I have helped large and small organizations develop and implement successful threat programs. Getting the right team in place, developing stakeholder buy-in, writing effective policies, ensuring the proper kind of data management and evaluation processes are established, training supervisors and front line personnel, and developing practices to sustain your program over time are foundational elements of implementing any successful program.  Together with colleagues at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, I co-authored Risk Assessment in Juvenile Justice: A Guidebook for Implementation , published by the John D. & Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. These Guidelines have been adapted for use in other settings, such as corporations, high schools, and post-secondary education institutions. My colleagues and I have published research in scientific peer reviewed journals about our program implementation procedures.

 

 

Group Training and Individual Coaching

Training for Groups

I have delivered individualized workshops to professionals working in diverse sectors, including to law enforcement personnel, health professionals, attorneys, corporate security officers, human resources personnel, and various groups in higher education. I customize my workshops to be aligned with the experience level and needs of the client. Sometimes general information about a topic is required, but more frequently clients hire me to teach them assessment and management skills they can start to apply right away. Examples of topics that I am asked to teach about most often include:

Assessing and managing risk for general and specific forms of violence:

• Youth violence
• Domestic violence
• Stalking
• Sexual violence
• Self-directed violence (suicide and self-harm)

Interviewing

• For gathering information in violence risk assessment of youth and adults
• With high conflict or difficult people

Psychological assessment

• Personality problems
• Major mental disorders
• Violent thoughts and plans

Please contact me to discuss your organization’s needs.

Coaching for Individuals

I offer mentoring and support services to professionals who prefer to develop threat assessment and management skills, or other assessment skills, at an individualized pace.  Ways in which I can support you to develop, improve, or maintain your skills include:

• Individualized feedback on scoring, interpreting, and communicating results of violence risk assessment tools
• Refining case conceptualization
• Report writing and editing

 

 

Individual Interventions

I work with individuals to increase their strengths and decrease their violence risk-enhancing factors, such as:

• Alcohol and drug use
• Emotion management
• Mental health
• Violent thoughts

 

 

Additional Services for Attorneys, Mental Health Professionals, and Threat Assessment Professionals

Some of the other ways in which I support professionals in their practice include:

• For attorneys, reviewing mental health and violence risk assessment reports to identify test scoring errors, problematic analysis of data, illogical conclusions, and adequacy of research support for methods used; preparing a rebuttal to another clinician’s report; and writing research summaries on forensic mental health topics to support case and expert witness preparation

• For threat assessment and mental health professionals, scoring and interpreting risk tools and psychological tests, providing feedback on drafts of written reports, and general case consultation.