Special Post: Risk Assessments

Risk assessments. If you are a school psychologist in New Jersey, you are mostly likely going to be involved in a risk assessment at some point. If you have read my blog, you will have likely gotten the gist of what a risk assessment is. For newcomers, I'll give a brief overview of what a risk assessment is in a school.

In school, a risk assessment is an evaluation to determine if a student is an immediate danger to themselves or others and, if so, to have their parent/guardian take them to a private psychiatrist or psychologist, or mental health screeners at a local psychiatric emergency screening center to be evaluated further.

Most school psychology programs don't provide formal preparation for this sort of thing. I know that my program didn't and the programs that my coworkers attended didn't prepare them either. We've all had the training to conduct an interview and a psychological assessment. We've had classes in psychopathology. But this doesn't prepare you for the situation that you may encounter.

These situations may be extremely emotionally charged and involve subject matter that may be uncomfortable for both the examiner and the student. For the school psychologist dealing with a risk assessment for the first time, the responsibility may feel overwhelming. If you were fortunate, you may have had the opportunity to be present for risk assessments during your internship.

While I'm not a risk assessment guru or anything, I have had the benefit of a great deal of experience. So I'll give some advice that has been given to me:

• Don't be afraid to ask the student if they had thought or planned to kill themselves. You aren't going to implant the thought in their head.
• Take your time. You have all the time in the world to ask your questions or formulate your questions.
  
• Don't be afraid of the silence between the questions. Don't feel like you have to fill the silence.
• If you have the benefit of working with other school psychologist or school social workers in your district, don't be afraid to consult with them.
• And finally, follow your gut. If you don't feel comfortable letting the student return to class and go about their day then don't. Now it may seem weird to talk about comfort in these situations but it is something that comes with time.

One day, my coworkers and I were talking about risk assessments and inter-rater reliability. I had said that if each of us had the opportunity to assess the same student in the same exact situation separately, we may all come up with different decisions.

Again, the reason behind this is that there isn't any consistent training between the eight of us that have the responsibility. We also talked about a way to provide training to new staff members: such as having the new staff member attend assessments as an observer; then as the main interview but still accompanied by another staff; and then finally on their own.

As I said at the start, this may be the most difficult responsibility for a new school psychologist but it is something that you can become proficient and confident. Most importantly, you should seek additional training in this area.