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Yvonne Rath
Massac County Mental Health
206 W. 5th St.
Metropolis, IL 62960
(618) 524-9368 ext. 2118
Working with potentially violent clients is difficult and can be frightening. How do you assess the severity of the risk. How do you confront while remaining safe? Clients are often angry. This workshop will address issues involved in assessing violence and how to respond. Forty percent of therapists are attacked by their clients at sometime in their professional life. Do not be a victim. This training will provide practical information on violence risk assessment to start using today. You will learn the interactions of personality disorder, substance abuse and violence and the "red flags" to spot.
When we consider the violence occurring in our society, our formal education, trainings and experiences, we must learn a lot in a short period of time. Information overload has also lead to misinformation, faulty conclusions and jumping into unknown waters too quickly. Invalid information canbe as harmful as no information. Violence is increasing. Society has become numbe accepting or expecting its occurrences. Self reports are often our initial introduction to new clients and must be viewed with some suspicion. Do we dare delve into multiple areas of our client's life or do we stick with the presented problem. Counselors may avoid or fail to ask important question. This may be due to limited training or the personal discomfort of the therapist. The potential for violence cannot be recognized by education occupation appearance or socioeconomic level. Psychological tests may be an option. The violent client's are a heterogeneous group with few shared characteristics. There is not specific personality or an indicator that we immediately see when he walks through our doors. We do know they are diverse, may appear normal, and will be violent again.
Therapists have been fooled. This training will improve your assessment skills by providing useful techniques and broaden your awareness of violence potential and your safety needs. Training information based on current research and my 23 years of experience working with families, sexual offenders, violent clients, court testimony and the legal system. Handouts are available to attendees for use during and after the workshop.
Reality and practicality are necessary in today's counseling profession. Outcome measurements are expected and required in the world of managed care and social service reform. This workship provides the needed information to deal with these realities.
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