Identifying Troubled Youth

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Identifying Troubled Youth

• Presented By Cody Huie

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Seminar Goals

• Define troubled youth and discuss risk factors
  and warning signs.
• Discuss school violence.
• Discuss threat-assessment and intervention
  strategies.
• Review model prevention/intervention programs.

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Troubled Youth

• Students who are at risk for violence towards
  themselves (i.e., suicide) or others (i.e.,
  homicide).
• These students require either secondary or
  tertiary mental health intervention in their
  schools and/or collaborative efforts with
  community mental health professionals.

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Risk Factors Primary Grades

• Being Male
• Substance abuse
• Aggression
• Low intelligence
• Antisocial Parents
• Poverty
• Psychological Conditions
• Weak social ties
• Antisocial behaviors, attitudes, beliefs, and
  peers

• Exposure to TV violence
• Poor School Performance
• Abusive parents
• Poor Parent-Child Relationships
• Broken Homes
• U.S. Dept of Health and Human Services, 2001

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Risk Factors Secondary Grades

• Crimes against persons
• Family conflict
• Academic failure
• Physical violence
• Neighborhood crime
• Gang membership
• Risk-taking behavior
• Poor parental monitoring
• U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services, 2001

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Early Warning Signs

• Social Withdrawal
• Excessive feelings of isolation and being alone
• Excessive feelings of rejection
• Being a victim of violence
• Feelings of being picked on
• Low school interest and poor academic performance
• Expression of violence in writings or drawings
• Uncontrolled anger
• Impulsive and chronic hitting, intimidating,
  bullying
• History of discipline problems
• Early Warning Signs A Guide to Safe Schools

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Early Warnings Signs cont.

• Past history of violent and aggressive behavior
• Intolerance for differences and prejudicial
  attitudes
• Drug and alcohol use
• Affiliation with gangs
• Inappropriate access to, possession of, and use
  of firearms
• Serious threats of violence
• Early Warning Signs A Guide to Safe Schools

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Imminent Warning Signs

• Serious physical fighting with peers or family
  members
• Severe destruction of property
• Severe rage for seemingly minor reasons
• Detailed threats of lethal violence
• Other self-injurious behaviors or threats of
  suicide
• Early Warning Signs A Guide to Safe Schools

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Risk Factors of Youth Suicide

• Psychopathological Disorders
• Familial Factors
• Biological Factors
• Environmental Factors
• Situational Crises
• Davis and Brock, 2002

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Warning Signs of Youth Suicide

• Suicide Threats (direct or indirect)
• Suicide plan, method, and means
• Previous attempts
• Making final arrangements
• Symptoms of depression

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Targeted Violence

• Violence in which the perpetrator and the
  target(s) are identified or identifiable prior to
  the incident.
• Borum, Fein, Vossekuil, Berglund, 1999
• Planned attacks
• The U.S. Secret Service

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Risk Factors Targeted Violence

• Students at risk for targeted violence may or may
  not possess many of the traditional risk factors
  associated with delinquency and general violence.
  (Reddy et al., 2001)
• Juveniles that committed homicides were less
  likely to
• Have had problems with school adjustment
• Have prior mental health difficulties
• Have prior arrests or placement in juvenile
  detention facilities
• Have histories of prior violent behavior than
  those youths convicted of assault

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School Crisis Events

• School Violence
• Continuum ranging from teasing, harassment or
  bullying (verbal physical), suicide, and
  homocide.

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School Crisis Events

• Reminder
• It is imperative that school staff should be
  trained to spot signs of suicide and violence and
  informed of their duty to intervene.

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Effective Strategies
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Effective Strategies

• Primary Prevention Strategies
• Proactive strategies aimed at lowering the rate
  of troubled youth.
• Secondary Prevention Strategies
• Strategies that will help schools identify,
  refer, and intervene with students that are at
  risk for violence.
• Tertiary Prevention Strategies
• Multi-agency wrap-around services aimed to meet
  individual needs.

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Primary Prevention

• School-Wide or Curricular Approaches
• The goal of such approaches is to provide an
  environment that develops and nurtures emotional
  healthy students.
• Availability and Development of School Mental
  Health resources

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Components/Tasks for Safe School Climate

• Assessment of schools emotional climate.
• Emphasis on the importance of listening.
• Strong but caring stance on the code of silence
• Prevention/Intervention of bullying
• Plan, create, and sustain a culture of safety and
  respect
• Development of trusting relationships between
  each student and at least one adult
• Threat Assessments In Schools

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Characteristics of a Safe Physical Environment

• Supervising access to the buildings and grounds
• Reducing class size and school size
• Minimize time spent in hallway or dangerous
  locations
• Building safety audit
• Closing school campus during lunch
• Arranging supervision in critical times
• Prohibit students from congregating
• Having adults visibly present throughout the
  school
• Stagger dismissal times and lunch periods
• Coordinating with local police to ensure safe
  flow to and from school
• Early Warning Signs A Guide to Safe Schools

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Secondary Prevention

• Despite the efforts of primary prevention
  programs some students will develop problems that
  lead to other- and self-directed violence.

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Identification, Referral, and Risk Assessment

• All school staff must be trained to identify the
  warning signs of potentially troubled youth, and
  a procedure must be in place for students, staff,
  and parents to refer troubled youth for
  intervention and support.
• Once referred the procedure must include
  provisions for risk assessment to determine the
  degree of risk the student poses.

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Risk Assessment

• Traditional approaches to risk assessment
• Behavioral Profiling
• Guided professional or structured clinical
  assessment
• Including use of warning signs and other
  checklists
• Automated decision making (use of actuarial
  formulas)

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Threat Assessment

• Is a process of identifying, assessing, and
  managing individuals who pose a threat.
• Focuses on the facts of a specific case.
• Closely examines the progression of the ideas
  and planning behavior over time.
• Corroborates information gained in a case through
  multiple sources.

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What is a threat?

• Making a threat
• Communicating intent to harm oneself or others.
• Posing a threat
• Engaging in behaviors that comprise a plan to
  harm oneself or others.
• Motivations for threats (Table 4)
• Types of Threats
• Direct Threat
• Indirect Threat
• Veiled Threat
• Conditional Threat

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Threat Assessment Models

• U.S. Secret Service Model
• Behavioral-Based Approach
• Guiding Principles
• There is no single type of perpetrator of
  targeted violence.
• There is a distinction between posing a threat
  and making a threat.
• Targeted violence is often a product of an
  understandable and discernable pattern of
  behavior and thinking.

• FBI Model
• Trait Based-Approach
• The purpose is to determine the level of risk
  based on answers to the following questions
• How credible/serious is the threat?
• To what extent does the student making the threat
  have the resources, intent, and motivation to
  carry it out?
• This threat-assessment model also proposes data
  in the following four areas to make the risk
  assessment
• Student personality
• Family dynamics
• School dynamics
• Social dynamics

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Secret Service Threat-Assessment Model

• The Process
• Gathering Preliminary Data
• Review cumulative records
• Brief interviews with teachers
• Community Agencies
• Mental health
• Probation
• Child protective services
• Interviewing the student at risk
• Intent is to gather the students perceptions of
  the events.
• Possible Questions Table 2
• Interview third parties
• Possible Questions Table 3
• Recent writings can also be reviewed for themes
  of depression, desperation, murder, suicide, and
  interest in weapons.

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FBI Threat Assessment Model

• Levels of Risk
• Low Level of Threat
• Threat is vague and indirect
• Threat lacks realism
• Content of the threat suggests person is unlikely
  to carry it out
• Medium Level of Threat
• More concrete and realistic
• Wording suggests that the threatener has given
  thought to the act
• There is a general indication of possible place
  and time
• There is no strong indication of preparation
  though there be a veiled reference or vague
  evidence indicating planning
• May be a specific statement indicating the
  threat is not empty
• High Level of Threat
• Threat is direct, specific, and plausible
• Threat suggests concrete steps have been taken

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FBI Threat-Assessment Model

• The Four-Pronged Assessment Model
• Personality of the Student
• Family Dynamics
• School Dynamics
• Social Dynamics

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Implementing a Threat Assessment Program

• School district develops policies and procedures.
• Inform parents students of policy procedures.
• Designate a Threat Assessment Coordinator.
• Develop a multidisciplinary team.
• School Administrators
• Teachers
• Law Enforcement officials
• Parents
• Community Agencies and Organizations

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Early Intervention

• Responding to at-risk youths (Table 5)
• Staff should meet to review needs of their
  at-risk students twice a year.
• Once strategies are implemented, provisions must
  be made to monitor progress and modify initial
  interventions if needed.

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Early Interventions

• Responding to high-risk youths
• Procedures must be in place to provide immediate
  intervention if a student is judged at high-risk
  for violence. (Table 6)
• Response must be immediate.
• Hold an informal process until a formal meeting
  can be held. (Table 7)

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Suicide Intervention Model

• Conduct a suicide risk assessment
• Notify parents
• Provide referrals
• Follow up and support the student and their
  family
• Referral for psycho-educational assessment
• Individualizing classroom arrangements
• Assigning peer tutor
• Reducing academic demand
• Participating in conflict or anger management
  programs
• Participating in extracurricular activities
• Directing family to appropriate community
  agencies

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Tertiary Prevention

• Multi-agency effort
• School district, community mental health, law
  enforcement, probation, etc.
• Each agency considers the resources available and
  develops a individualized intervention plan.
• School mental health professionals should
  communicate with community-based mental health
  providers.
• Close communication between school and care
  provider.

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Secret Service Recommendations

• Consistent and coordinated message that violence
  is not permitted.
• Make youth aware that investigation is taking
  place and violence will be stopped.
• Elicit subject cooperation in being monitored by
  law enforcement.
• Importance of mental health intervention
  consistently reinforced by everyone involved with
  the student.

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Model Program

• Safeguarding Our Children An Action Guide (Dwyer
  Osher 2000)
• Based on three components
• Provides school wide foundation for all students
  through prevention programs.
• Early intervention for at-risk students
• Provisions for intensive services targeting
  high-risk students.

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Positive Behavior Support
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Three-Tiered Model of School-Wide Discipline
Strategies1

• Intensive social skills teaching
• Individual behavior management plans
• Parent training and collaboration
• Multi-agency collaboration (wrap-around)

Targeted/ Intensive
(High-risk Students) Individual
Interventions (3-5 of students)

• Intensive social skills teaching
• Self-management programs
• Adult mentors (checking in)
• Increased academic support

Selected
(At-risk Students) Classroom and Small Group
Strategies (7-10 of students)
Universal

• Social skills teaching
• Positive, proactive discipline
• Teaching school behavior expectations
• Active supervision and monitoring
• Positive reinforcement systems
• Firm, fair, and corrective discipline

(All Students) School-wide Systems of
Support (85-90 of students)
1Reprinted with permission of Sprague, J. and
Walker, H. (1999) Institute on Violence and
Destructive Behavior
Diana Browning Wright, DCS 2002
HHp1.2