Providing A Safe Environment: Identifying At Risk Students, Employees, and Citizens Violence Prevent

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Providing A Safe Environment Identifying At
Risk Students, Employees, and Citizens(Violence
Prevention)

• Presented
• By
• Sherry M. Wilson, LCSW
• Executive Director, UTEAP WorkLife Services

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Your Local Fire DepartmentEfforts
Energy Expended - 05 Extinguishing Fires-
95 Devoted to Prevention
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The 4 Cs of Violence Prevention

• Commitment
• Culture
• Collaboration
• Communication

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Commitment

• Everyones responsibility - Executive Leadership
  must lead the way
• Zero tolerance implementation is key
• Make funding available to provide a safe
  environment

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Culture of Safety Respect

• Environment of safety and respect for others
• Differences and diversity are respected
• Communication is encouraged and supported
• Conflict is managed constructively
• Emotional intelligence is encouraged as much as
  educational intellectual pursuits

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Culture, cont.

• Policies in place
• include all forms of violent behavior
• authorize designated personnel to meet and
  discuss identified at-riskpersons
• conduct threat-assessment inquiries if necessary
• outline procedures for dealing with at-risk
  persons, breaking confidentiality and sharing
  information, when/how to refer to community
  resources, falsely accusing others

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Culture, cont.

• Maintain safe environment(including facilities,
  adequate security, phone zones,etc.)
• Adequate technologies to alert others of a crisis
• Culture that supports listening and encourages
  others to speak up if they have concerns about
  others

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Collaboration

• Violence Prevention is a joint/collaborative
  initiative
• Use expertise of all major departments--HR,
  Facilities, Environmental Safety, Public Affairs,
  Telecommunications, IT, etc.
• Include students when possible/peer support
• Educate faculty, staff, and students with training

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Collaboration, cont

• Create a committee that is composed of critical
  representatives across campus--HR, Public
  Affairs, Facilities, etc., that meets regularly
  and has the authority to discuss identified
  at-risk persons and if necessary, conduct a
  threat-assessment inquiry

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Communication

• Must first communicate to all faculty, staff and
  students about schools commitment for a
  violence-free workplace and learning environment
  and that it is every persons responsibility to
  help create that environment and culture.

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Communication, cont.

• It is better to over-communicate than
  under-communicate
• In collaboration with major departments, your
  primary communications department is critical in
  getting the word out regarding your initiative,
  policies, trainings and dates, etc.

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Communications, cont.

• There must be a process whereby every faculty,
  staff member, and student knows how and where to
  go to get information in times of a crisis.
• Schools home page
• brochures available in key locations
• wallet cards
• phone stickers

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Communications, cont

• Training on how to identify At-Risk persons and
  how to refer them for help must be made
  available for every faculty member, staff member,
  and student
• Involve your student association groups to help
  support involvement in initiative and in getting
  the training out to students

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Communications, cont.

• Some schools are asking for waiver from students
  to investigate a students behavior if behavior
  becomes a concern by others
• Many schools are beefing up their trainings on
  
• conflict management
• emotional intelligence
• communication and listening skills

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Communication, cont

• Research reveals that every attacker
  interviewed has stated that they felt they had
  no one to talk to about their problem and saw no
  other choice to resolve their problem
• Positive mentoring program and supervisory/manager
  ial relationships are the most critical tools in
  violence prevention

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Identifying At-Risk Persons

• No specific profile however...
• What is observed from other attackers are some
  common characteristics
• Common characteristics are same for students as
  they are adult co-workers, including faculty,
  with a few exceptions
• Only 1 of mentally ill use violence to resolve
  their concerns/conflicts

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Identifying At-Risk Persons

• Loner behavior--old or new
• Most engage in some behavior that leads others to
  suspect or wonder.
• History of difficulty coping with losses
• May have had a recent loss or personal failure
  that they feel is the last straw
• Many have history of being bullied or feel
  persecuted or injured by others

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Identifying At-Risk Persons

• Students usually more overt
• -May hear conversations about weapon use
• -May hear fantasy stories of harming others
• -May be warned about target day
• -May see excessive preoccupation with
• video games, violent movies, etc.
• -May see less personal hygiene

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Identifying At-Risk Persons

• Faculty or staff usually more covert in
  actions, seldom signaling their intentions like
  students often do.
• Anger and/or rage seething below the surface,
  so often seem touchy, irritable, etc.
• May see more overt symptoms of depression--poor
  work performance, etc.

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Identifying At-Risk Persons

• Motivation
• Revenge for perceived injury or grievance
• Yearning for attention, recognition, or notoriety
• A wish to solve a problem otherwise seen as
  unbearable and/or unsolvable in any other way
• A desire to die or be killed

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Helping At-Risk Persons

• Let the person know you are concerned about
  him/her.
• Never confront or deny their perceptions try to
  support their feelings without necessarily
  agreeing with them (I am sure that must feel
  terrible for you.)
• Encourage and support them in looking into
  options for help.

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Helping At-Risk Persons

• You must be feeling terrible about this. I know
  I would. What options have you considered?
• I want to help but dont feel I am expert
  enough. How about we think about the Counseling
  Center..They do more than therapy, you know.
  They can coach you on how to solve this problem.

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Helping At-Risk Persons,

• Well, I know you arent too keen on the
  Counseling Center, but I really have been helped
  by them/know students, etc. Help me understand
  why you dont want to make an appointment.
• You may be able to reduce their resistance enough
  to get him/her to the right resource for help.

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Helping At-Risk Person

• Goal is not to solve the problem
• Goal is to get this person to the appropriate
  resource
• Always make sure this at-risk person has been
  reported to the team meeting regularly to watch
  out for at-risk persons.

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Questions?
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Thank you for coming!

• Sherry Wilson
• 713.500.3327