Facilitator: Dr Lorraine Johnstone (UK)

Cost: £295 inc VAT

Duration: 1 Day - Thursday 29th March 2012

There are many structured professional guidelines for assessing individual risk factors for violence, however, violent behaviour does not occur in a vacuum of internal drives and motivations – situational factors are also highly relevant. PRISM offers a structured professional judgement approach to assessing situational and contextual risk factors for violence in institutional settings. It offers a theoretical framework as well as a systematic, practical and professional approach for helping institutions identify situational risk factors that elevate the organisations risk for violent incidents.

PRISM has developed and evolved over several years. Informed by a systematic review, a qualitative analysis and then field-testing in prisons and hospital settings, PRISM has been found to have considerable practical utility. It has now been used internationally, in both hospital and prison settings, in New Zealand, Barbados, Norway and the UK. John Monahan recently described PRISM as “a model merging of cutting-edge academic research and state-of-the-art clinical practice” and the utility of the tool has recently been highlighted in a special section of the International Journal of Forensic Mental Health.

This workshop will describe the content and use of PRISM. It will be of relevance to clinicians, managers, administrators, policy makers and researchers involved in the task of managing violent offenders. Delegates should have a working knowledge the structured professional judgement paradigm to violence risk assessment as this course will focus only on the use and content of PRISM.

The workshop is led by Dr Lorraine Johnstone, the first author of PRISM. Using a range of teaching methods including didactic, interactive and case-materials, this workshop offers a fascinating and innovative approach to broadening the approach to violence risk assessment.