Serious, Scary, or Insignificant? A Psychiatric Perspective on Threat Assessment in Youth **IN PERSON** 8:30-11:30am

This presentation will focus on the psychiatric threat assessment process and related concerns. The presentation will be divided into three components: Part 1) Critical Aspects of Threat Assessment: Essential aspects of the threat assessment process identifying a range of risk factors and potential warning signs. Lessons learned from school shooting tragedies will be discussed. Issues to be emphasized: 1) Appreciating that threatening communications in social media posts, drawings, and writings may be clues of potential impending violence. 2) The importance of exploring the degree and intensity of the student’s interest in the lives and methods of prior mass shooters. 3) The need to perform a thorough evaluation even if a threat appears relatively minor. 4) The potential need in high-risk cases for collaboration with law enforcement, forensic evaluations and mandated hospitalization or residential treatment. Part 2) Case Discussion: Threat assessment concepts will be exemplified through anonymized, actual case vignettes and discussion with the attendees regarding their own cases and experiences. Participants will be provided with presentation slides, handouts, threat assessment monographs from the FBI and Secret Service, and review articles. Part 3) Firearm Safety Presentation: The goal of this presentation is to help the participants improve their awareness of gun safety issues which impact children and adolescents. Mortality and morbidity from firearm injury is a critical issue transcending class, race, and geography. Educators and school mental health counselors need to become familiar with firearm safety issues and how to ask the essential questions. For full description, please see flyer: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1n2SePUAcpK1f3i-GZZOHilHx1FRdAEal/view?usp=sharing Eligible for 3 hours CTLE credit.
Registration: https://www.mylearningplan.com/WebReg/ActivityProfile.asp?D=13208&amp:I=4319228“