Firesetting and Violent Behavior Risk Assessments with Youth and Families
When: Friday, April 26 - 2:00 PM
Duration: 1 hours 30 minutes
Location: Zoom
Event Details:
Firesetting and violent behaviors can be challenging for mental health providers to assess and attend to. However, assessing risk is important to reduce harm or even mortality in all treatment settings. Important tenets of risk assessment protocols include trauma informed and guided clinical interviews as well as a focus on both risk and protective factors. Additionally, quality assessment is the first phase of good treatment.
This training has been created to help you develop the skills you need to holistically assess current risk as well as anticipate any emerging risk. There will be a discussion on identifying and analyzing the level of risk for both violent and firesetting behavior.
At the end of the training, participants will be able to:
- Define ‘risk’ regarding both violent and firesetting behavior
- Clarify the need for either or both violent behavior and firesetting risk assessments
- Recognize the core elements of risk assessments for violence and firesetting
- Increase awareness of appropriate treatments for reducing violence and firesetting risks.
About our Presenters:
Michael A. Feder, Ph.D. is a Clinical Assistant Professor in the Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry in the Grossman School of Medicine at NYU Langone; he serves as an Attending Psychologist on the NYU-Bellevue Mental Health Team at the ACS Children’s Center, where he conducts extended psychological evaluations of psychiatrically complex children, including firesetting risk assessments and sexually harmful behavior risk assessments. He previously served as an Attending Psychologist in the Children’s Comprehensive Psychiatric Emergency Program at NYC Health+Hospitals/Bellevue and served as a co-director of the psychology externship program. Michael is certified in conducting evaluations for the New York State Office for People with Developmental Disabilities. Michael also maintains a private practice and teaches undergraduates at NYU through the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Studies program. He has co-authored peer-reviewed articles, co-written book chapters, and presented at various conferences on ADHD treatments, Parent Management Training, sleep hygiene, Autism Spectrum Disorder, internet addiction, and other topics in child and adolescent mental health.
​Victoria “Tory” Phillips, Ph.D. is also a Clinical Assistant Professor in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry in the Grossman School of Medicine at NYU Langone and an Attending Psychologist on the NYU-Bellevue Mental Health Team at the ACS Children’s Center. In her role on that team, Tory works alongside Michael Feder on a grant to provide extended evaluations to youth at the Children’s Center who are having difficulty finding appropriate foster-care placements. Prior to her work at the Children’s Center, Tory worked at Horizon Juvenile Detention Center in the Bronx as part of the NYU-Bellevue Juvenile Justice Mental Health Team, providing clinical services to the youth and implementing a second round of NIH funded research on the use of trauma-informed interventions. Tory has also worked at Hackensack University Medical Center (HUMC) providing trauma-focused therapy to survivors of abuse and neglect, and conducting forensic psychosocial evaluations of children, parenting evaluations, and risk assessments for alleged juvenile and adult offenders for those families involved with New Jersey child welfare agencies. Tory is trained as a Forensic Psychologist, holds certificates as an expert witness in both Civil and Criminal Courts, and is an approved 18B Court examiner. Her research and teaching interests include the impact of trauma on childhood development, the use of evidence-based and trauma-informed practices in correctional settings, and the long-term effects of incarceration on individuals and family systems.
