Putting the Science into Self-Injury Risk Assessment and Prevention

Are you interested in learning about some of the reasons that people repeatedly and purposely injure themselves? Do you want to learn ways to manage serial self-injurious behavior? We know that self-injurious behavior is a significant problem in correctional settings. Compounding the problem is confusion about what constitutes self-injurious behavior, how to define it, and what are the potential motivational and etiological factors involved. A number of researchers have attempted to address these issues, but efforts to construct a paradigm have proven problematic. In response to this growing problem, this interactive one-hour webinar will introduce an innovative profiling system designed to develop profiles of inmates who engage in serial self-injuries.

The Self-Injury Profile System (SIPS) identifies diagnostic and personality characteristics, behavioral patterns, and associated risk factors that create a SIPS profile which is used to analyze individual and group trends. Implementing a SIPS will help you and your agency develop a classification system for defining self-injurious behaviors and a paradigm for understanding the motivational and etiological factors involved. SIPS allows for the implementation of evidence-based management interventions, improvement in clinical outcomes, and reduction in health care costs associated with serial self-injurious behaviors across a facility, agency, or an entire correctional system.

During this one-hour interactive webinar, you will learn to

1. recognize the problems and obstacles to effective assessment and treatment of non-suicidal self-injury,
2. understand the differences and unique characteristics associated with serial self-injurious behaviors and how to document the risk assessment, and
3. identify how a profiling system may be useful in developing a classification system and a paradigm for better management of serial self-injurious behaviors.

Speaker : Dean Aufderheide Ph.D.
Dr. Aufderheide is a board-certified correctional psychologist and licensed clinical and forensic psychologist. A former president of the International Association of Correctional and Forensic Psychology, he is the Chief of Mental Health Services for the Florida Department of Corrections and serves as the American Correctional Association’s National Mental Health Advisor.