Friday, November 15, 2019
8:30 AM - 4:00 PM 
The Brattleboro Retreat, Brattleboro, Vermont 
6 CE Contact Hours

Sharmila B. Mehta, PhD

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Course Description: 

Leading authorities in education, law enforcement, and mental health recommend a systematic threat assessment approach to evaluate youth who threaten to commit a violent act. In this workshop, participants will learn how to recognize and take action in response to a serious threat. Dr. Mehta will describe the evidence-based Comprehensive School Threat Assessment Guidelines (Cornell, 2018), which includes the identification, assessment, and management of threats with a preventative and problem-solving approach. Participants will also learn how they can adapt this model for threat assessment in an inpatient setting.

History of the Comprehensive Student Threat Assessment Guidelines

In 2002, Professor Dewey Cornell of the University of Virginia led a team of educators and researchers to develop a practical and effective set of guidelines for schools to use in responding to threats of violence.  After years of development and research, this model, the Virginia Student Threat Assessment Guidelines (VSTAG), was formally recognized as an evidence-based program by the federal government's National Registry of Evidence-based Programs and Practices in 2013. Over the past 17 years, VSTAG has been widely disseminated in the United States and Canada. No other model of threat assessment has demonstrated effectiveness in controlled studies published in peer-reviewed journals. In 2018 School Threat Assessment Consultants LLC published an updated manual, Comprehensive School Threat Assessment Guidelines (CSTAG). 

Learning Objectives - at the end of this conference, participants will be able to:

1. Describe misconceptions about the nature and scope of school violence as well as ineffective responses.
2. Explain the rationale for a prevention-focused threat assessment for school violence.
3. Describe how to differentiate between transient and substantive threats of violence through the use of the Comprehensive Student Threat Assessment Guidelines model and decision tree.
4. Describe when, why, and how to conduct a mental health assessment.
5. List three pathways to violence.
6. Describe how to conduct threat assessments in an inpatient setting using the Review of Interpersonal Safety Concerns model.

Sharmila B. Mehta, PhD, is Director of Inpatient Child Psychology Training for Cambridge Health Alliance/ Harvard Medical School. Dr. Mehta obtained her Ph.D. in Clinical and School Psychology from the University of Virginia and completed her internship and postdoctoral training at Hartford Hospital-Institute of Living (IOL; CT). Dr. Mehta has experience treating youth with acute and chronic mental health issues, as well as assessment of risk of youth potential for violence in the context of inpatient psychiatric treatment. She has treated and conducted psychological assessments for child and adolescent psychiatric inpatients at Cambridge Health Alliance (MA; Harvard Medical School(HMS)) and the IOL, and has provided outpatient individual, group, and family therapy in private practice, at McLean Hospital (MA; HMS), and at Patriot Pediatrics (MA; Massachusetts General Hospital). Dr. Mehta also has particular interests in teaching psychology and psychiatry trainees and supporting parents grappling with their children's mental health issues

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