Overview: Safety and Violence Education (SAVE) is specifically designed to provide proactive violence prevention strategies for clinical, case management, and other human service and law enforcement staff who serve young adults and older adults with mental illness in community settings. The SAVE program promotes safe practice by teaching staff to identify warning signs of impending violence, and to utilize proven methods for approaching high-risk individuals in community settings. Although incidents of serious violence against service providers are relatively rare, fallout from these events can have devastating consequences while further stigmatizing persons with mental illness. Consequences of workplace violence can include staff absenteeism, recruitment and retention problems, poor morale, and declining quality of care. Simply witnessing a violent event can be traumatic, and it can contribute to feelings of helplessness and unpredictability in the workplace. The SAVE program was chosen as mandatory training for the rollout of the New York State Office of Mental Health Assertive Community Treatment teams, and elected for use by small and large clinical facilities throughout the United States and Canada as the program of choice for front-line prevention-based training.
Content will cover: Need for safety training; impact of violent incidents on providers, clients and others; risk factors for violence among mentally disordered individuals and general populations (interpersonal, institutional and physical plant/environmental); prediction of violence; tips on evaluating dangerousness; case-based scenarios with increased risk; team approach to safe practice; risk reduction (short staffing, high-risk situations); situational awareness models; linear aggression sequence; avoiding common pitfalls; teamwork, communication and practical support in crisis situations; safe transport, field work and home visit safety; self-defense techniques (hands-off approach); incident review and lessons learned (post-incident debriefing and mentorship/supervision).
Learning objectives:
- Recognize and appreciate the need for safety and violence prevention training;
- Identify general risk factors for violence;
- Assess individual risk factors for violence;
- Utilize individual and team skills to prevent and to de-escalate crises;
- Implement safety precautions when providing services in the community;
- Conduct effective incident debriefings when violent incidents occur
Target Audience: social workers, behavioral health professionals, healthcare professionals, school personnel, addictions professionals, human resource staff, case managers, social services staff, home care workers, law enforcement, emergency service staff and other human service professionals.
Course Instructor: Robert L. Weisman, D.O., Professor of Psychiatry, Chief of Clinical Operations Community Division, University of Rochester Medical Center