Violence Threat Risk Assessment Training

Center for Trauma Informed Practices (CTIP) © - www.ctipractices.com

This version of the VTRA™ Model is leading the way in trauma-informed and multi-stakeholder (multi-departmental) practice, as it relates to violence prevention and intervention. As well, the VTRA protocol, practice, and process has been strengthened by ongoing collaboration with individuals, professionals and programs that represent the diversity of the world around us. The VTRA process works well in conjunction with the CTIP Traumatic Event Systems (TES) Model because the “Fields of Violence Threat Risk Assessment and Crisis/Trauma Response are inseparably connected”.

Foundation of the VTRA Model and Protocol

The model takes into consideration the role of psychopathology, peer dynamics, family dynamics and context that may be interacting and influencing risk. As a trauma-informed practice, VTRA Teams are also trained to consider the role of trauma in individuals and trauma in human systems (families, peer groups, workplaces, communities, societies, etc.), while considering if both individual and systems dynamics are converging in a current assessment.

The early underpinnings of the VTRA™ model and protocol include the foundational work of the United States Secret Service Safe Schools Initiative, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), as well as theoretical and practical applications from psychology, psychiatry, traumatology, family systems theory, criminology, organizational behavior, criminal justice, and others. In essence, the springboard for the early development of the model was the realization that many high-profile shootings were perpetrated by an “Individual of Concern” (IOC) where the professionals involved often under-reacted to clear (and some-times blatant) pre-incident signs and indicators that some individual, or group, was moving rapidly on a path-way to violence. This realization led to the conclusion that in some cases the professionals were actually unwittingly contributing to the IOC’s risk for violence without realizing it by failing to heed the many conscious and unconscious “cries for help” that were given.

VTRA™ resolves this issue by enhancing already existing successful programs and community practices with a model that is:

• Data Driven
• Evidence Informed
• Trauma-Informed
• Mental Health-Informed
• Systems-Informed
• Intervention Focused