RISK

The goal

To ensure safe mental health services.

About this project

In December 2004, the Health Research Council entered into a contract with the Ministry of Health to develop a training tool kit for assessing and managing the risk of violence to others. The contract expired in June 2005, with some parts of the project still to be completed. It was agreed that the original methodology would be abandoned and a new one developed. The revised project saw the publication and distribution to the mental health sector in June 2006 of a risk assessment tool kit; the four documents of which are available below:

Assessment and Management of Risk to Others: Guidelines and Development of Training Toolkit
Assessment and Management of Risk to Others: Trainee Workbook
Assessment and Management of Risk to Others: Trainers' Manual
Creating Safety within Mental Health Environments

Where to from here

The Ministry of Health now requires all mental health services to include risk assessment training into their staff training programmes. The regional workforce coordinators have the responsibility to sponsor and facilitate local and regional training with seeding funding from Te Pou and, as a result, Train the Trainer workshops have now been delivered in each of the four regions using the tool kit.

Northern

The northern project has developed a regional Train the Trainers approach that was delivered in December 2006. The overall purpose of the programme is to train teams to be proficient in the use of the tool kit (guidelines), and to be prepared to provide the training to other clinical staff in their DHBs.

• Sandy Simpson, Brian McKenna and Ana Sokratov provided the initial training programme with input from Verity Humberstone.
• Twenty two trainers attended the programme from the four DHBs, and are delivering the workshop to DHB staff.
• The Northern DHB Support Agency (NDSA) commissioned the production of an interactive CD-ROM, which is based on the trainee workbook. The CD-ROM is aimed at providing DHBs with a consistent and sustainable approach to training. If other DHBs are interested in the CD-ROM, the NDSA is willing to organise further copies, providing DHBs meet the costs.

Midland

• The delivery and implementation of risk training for 20 trainers across the Midland DHB areas was delivered in late 2006 by Jeff Symonds, Areaan Libline and Philip Brown from Waikato DHB. Four NGO trainers have also been trained and training is now underway at a number of DHBs.
• Jeff Symonds is providing continuing support and the regional coordinator is organising web-based resources for the trainers.
• A further workshop ran in the second quarter of 2007.

Central

• Twenty four trainers have been trained by the midland training team.
• DHBs are not yet ready to pick up the training.

Southern

• Four Train the Trainers workshops - two in Christchurch, one in Nelson and one in Dunedin - have been presented by Ceri Evans, forensic psychiatrist , and Stu Bigwood, nurse practice consultant, from Canterbury DHB. The workshop participants  included several NGO clinicians.
• Canterbury DHB has rolled out the training to all their mental health staff.
• West Coast DHB has also provided training to staff.
• Otago and South Canterbury DHBs have incorporated the guidelines into existing risk training.
• Nelson Marlborough and Southland DHBs have yet to commence training their staff.
• The regional workforce coordinator has contacted those who completed Train the Trainers workshops, and each South Island DHB is soon to be contacted also. This is to establish how they are incorporating the Assessment and Management of Risk to Others guidelines into their training and policies, and determine if any assistance is required.
• Funding has been secured to assist in adapting the workshops for the NGO sector. The coordinator will work with Canterbury DHB to establish the feasibility of adapting the existing workshop.