Why Safety and Violence Education (SAVE) Training?
With continued downsizing of psychiatric hospitals, the need for community-based care of adults with serious mental illness is growing. This growth is evident in the proliferation of case management, care management, forensic case monitoring, specialty courts, specialty probation and parole, and ACT and FACT programs. Unfortunately, few individuals who provide community-based services have received formal training in how to effectively minimize the risk of workplace violence within their respective community settings. Although incidents of serious violence against service providers are relatively rare, fallout from these events can have devastating consequences while further stigmatizing people with mental illness.
Consequences of workplace violence can include staff absenteeism, recruitment and retention problems, poor morale, and declining quality of care. Simply witnessing a violent event can be traumatic, and it can contribute to feelings of helplessness and unpredictability in the workplace.
Safety and Violence Education (SAVE) is specifically designed to provide effective violence prevention strategies for all mental health and criminal justice staff who serve adults with serious mental illness in community settings. The SAVE program promotes safe practice by teaching staff to identify warning signs of impending violence, and to utilize proven methods for approaching high-risk individuals in community settings. Depending on your agency’s needs and interests, the SAVE curriculum can be delivered by our trainers on-site or through an interactive web-based training portal.
Upon completion of the SAVE training curriculum, trainees should be able to:
- Understand and appreciate the need for safety training
- Identify general risk factors for violence
- Assess individual risk factors for violence
- Utilize skills to prevent and to de-escalate crises
- Implement safety precautions when providing services in the community
- Conduct effective incident debriefings when violent incidents occur
Learn more about the SAVE training program and how your organization can gain essential knowledge and skills to minimize staff member risk of becoming a target of workplace violence.
Featured Publications
The First Publication on Forensic Assertive Community Treatment:
- Lamberti JS, Weisman R, Faden D. Forensic assertive community treatment: Preventing incarceration of adults with severe mental illness. Psychiatric Services 55:1285-1293, 2004.
A Framework for Preventing Criminal Recidivism Among People with Serious Mental Illness:
- Lamberti JS. Understanding and preventing criminal recidivism among adults with psychotic disorders. Psychiatric Services 58:773-781, 2007.
Forensic Assertive Community Treatment in the United States:
- Lamberti JS, Weisman RL. “Forensic Assertive Community Treatment: Origins, Current Practice and Future Directions. In: Reentry Planning for Offenders with Mental Disorders: Policy and Practice. Dlucacz H, Ed. Civic Research Institute, Kingston NY. Chapter 7:1-14, 2010.
The Role of Probation in Forensic Assertive Community Treatment:
- Lamberti JS, Deem A, Weisman RL et al. The role of probation in forensic assertive community treatment. Psychiatric Services 62:418-421, 2011.
Predictors of Arrest During Forensic Assertive Community Treatment:
- Erickson S, Lamberti JS, Weisman RL et al. The role of probation in forensic assertive community treatment. Psychiatric Services 60:834-837, 2009
Use of Legal Authority to Promote Treatment Adherence
- Lamberti JS, Russ A, Cerruli K, et al. Perceptions of autonomy and coercion among recipients of legal leverage in forensic assertive community treatment. Harvard Review of Psychiatry 22:222-230, 2014
A Framework for Promoting Effective Mental Health and Criminal Justice Collaboration
- Lamberti JS. Preventing criminal recidivism through mental health and criminal justice collaboration. Psychiatric Services 67:1206-1212, 2016
A Randomized Controlled Trial of Forensic Assertive Community Treatment
- Lamberti JS, Weisman RL, Cerulli K et al. A randomized controlled trial of the Rochester forensic assertive community treatment model. Psychiatric Services 68:1016-1024, 2017
A Review of Community-Based Intervention for Justice-Involved Patients
- Weisman RL, Lamberti JS, Ciccone JR. Community-based interventions for justice-involved individuals with serious mental disorders. In, Principles and Practice of Forensic Psychiatry, Third Edition. Rosner R, and Scott CL, Eds. CRC Press, Boca Raton, FL, 2017
A Review of Psychosis, Mania and Criminal Justice System Involvement
- Lamberti JS, Katsetos V, Jacobowitz D et al. Psychosis, Mania and Criminal Recidivism: Associations and Implications for Prevention. Harvard Review of Psychiatry 28:179-202, 2020
Fidelity Scale for Forensic Assertive Community Treatment
- Lamberti JS, Weisman RL. Essential elements of forensic assertive community treatment. Harvard Review of Psychiatry 29:278-297, 2021
Promoting Collaboration Through Inter-Agency Partnerships
- Kamin D, Weisman RL, Lamberti JS. Promoting mental health and criminal justice collaboration through system-level partnerships. Frontiers in Psychiatry 13:1-8, 2021
Cost-Effectiveness of Forensic Assertive Community Treatment
- Maeng D, Tsun Z, Lesch E, Lamberti JS: Cost-effectiveness of the Rochester forensic assertive community model. Psychiatric Services 74:358-364, 2023