Workplace Violence Troubleshooting

Part III 3D Workplace Violence Prevention Toolkit – TROUBLESHOOT

When your coffee maker or television suddenly quits, you don’t start at page 1 in the manual. Instead, you immediately go to the troubleshooting page. The TROUBLESHOOT template in the Active Shooter 360 3D Workplace Violence Prevention Toolkit has a similar function because you get quick access for emergent violence threats. Summaries of the key processes in the TROUBLESHOOT section are:

Threat Assessment Interview – ensure a cooling off period before the interview, select a room with more than one exit, gather relevant information, and listen with empathy. The primary objective is to establish a Risk Category and implement interventions. Risk categories are similar to color coded triage.

Low Risk Category (Green) – venting frustration without violence threats, experienced financial or relationship setbacks; cooperates with proposed interventions, and individual has a social or peer support network.

 Medium Risk (Yellow) – chronic complainer, fixated on target of anger without signs of aggression, veiled and non-specific emotional threats, co-workers are not generally fearful, and individual is willing to try suggestions for improvement.

High Risk (Orange) – fixation on a specific target, angry outbursts about the target, specific and intentional threats, drastic change in personal life situation, losing patience regarding a real or perceived grievance, violent fantasies, uncooperative with interventions, or suspicion of substance abuse.

Imminent Risk (Red) – immediate intent and means to commit violence, specific violence threat, suicide attempt or ideation, expressed homicidal fantasies, bringing weapons to work, and other warning indicators in the Green, Yellow, or Orange categories.

Key Points:

Begin a formal threat assessment process when you learn of troubling behavior.

Assess history to determine if there were other behaviors or risk indicators.

Interview the person of concern; preplan the interview and utilize your Threat Assessment Team.

Remember that threat assessment is multi-disciplinary team process, and not a single person effort.

Warning: This blog is a very abbreviated overview of the 3D Workplace Violence Prevention Toolkit. Not all factors are necessarily present to reach a structured judgment of risk. A person that is supposedly an Imminent Risk may not commit a violent act. Likewise, a model employee that does not exhibit any of the risk behaviors may still commit violence. The material noted in this blog is not detailed, and should not be considered as a toolkit or a policy guide. 

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About Hank Christen

Dr. Hank Christen was an Atlanta Fire Department Battalion Chief, Emergency Manager, and Director of Emergency Services for Okaloosa County, Florida. He has responded to multiple disasters in his career and was the Incident Commander for Hurricane Erin, Opal, Earl, and Georges, and responded to Hurricane Andrew (Miami), and Hurricane Marilyn (U.S. Virgin Islands). He co-authored eight books on crisis management and the incident command system in the disaster response field. Dr. Christen has served on a team that evaluated a biological non-traditional syndromic surveillance program during the 2000 George Bush Presidential Inauguration. Dr. Christen has also responded with a Disaster Medical Assistance Team (FL-1 DMAT) to the 2001 World Trade Center Attack, and served as team commander during the team’s deployment to the Atlanta Olympic Bombing. Additionally. Dr. Christen has served on a panel that evaluated the medical response to the Boston Marathon Bombing in 2014. Dr. Hank Christen EdD currently is responsible for developing curriculum, technical writing, and instructing courses with Active Shooter 360, LLC. The materials developed and taught by Dr. Christen include Active Shooter Awareness, Threat Intervention Practices, Incident Command System (ICS), Crisis Decision Making, and Emergency Operations Planning.

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