CCAC continues crisis training
North faculty learn more about risk management
Dan Auld
Issue date: 11/9/09 Section: Campus Life
CCAC continues its mission to provide training to its faculty and staff on how to handle a crisis situation on campus and how to recognize and manage students whose behaviors exhibit potential risk for aggression and acting out toward others.
North Campus President Donna Imhoff, Ph.D., was involved in arranging the October 22 and 23 training program and stressed its importance. With 21,000 credit students enrolled this semester and more than 63,000 annually, individual and mass safety is a top concern.
"It is the priority of the Campus Presidents that we take any measures available to provide students, faculty, staff and administrators a safe environment in which to work and study," Imhoff told the Voice.
Brett A. Sokolow, J.D., founder and president of the National Center for Higher Education Risk Management (NCHERM), led the training at North and gave insight into what makes certain students on campuses across the country act out in threatening ways.
"You can't only look at a person, and interpret their personality," Sokolow explained. "You have to understand their behavior because from behavior, you can then realize the different levels on the NaBITA [National Behavioral Intervention Team Association] scale that the individual may fall into."
The NaBITA threat assessment tool is a multi-level diagram separated into three categories: mental and behavioral health, generalized risk and the nine levels of aggression.
Mental and behavioral health is further categorized into four levels known as the "D-Scale," which helps measure stages of risk, including distress (emotionally troubled), disturbance (increasingly disruptive, may be destructive and/or harmful to others), dysregualtion (suicidal, destructive to self, hostile) or medical disability (detached view of reality, not caring for one's physical self, at risk for grievous injury or death).
Sokolow shared some of his own experiences, and told of a college student he once dealt with who had been performing exceptionally well with a 4.0 GPA and outstanding behavior. However, one day, the student acted out.
North Campus President Donna Imhoff, Ph.D., was involved in arranging the October 22 and 23 training program and stressed its importance. With 21,000 credit students enrolled this semester and more than 63,000 annually, individual and mass safety is a top concern.
"It is the priority of the Campus Presidents that we take any measures available to provide students, faculty, staff and administrators a safe environment in which to work and study," Imhoff told the Voice.
Brett A. Sokolow, J.D., founder and president of the National Center for Higher Education Risk Management (NCHERM), led the training at North and gave insight into what makes certain students on campuses across the country act out in threatening ways.
"You can't only look at a person, and interpret their personality," Sokolow explained. "You have to understand their behavior because from behavior, you can then realize the different levels on the NaBITA [National Behavioral Intervention Team Association] scale that the individual may fall into."
The NaBITA threat assessment tool is a multi-level diagram separated into three categories: mental and behavioral health, generalized risk and the nine levels of aggression.
Mental and behavioral health is further categorized into four levels known as the "D-Scale," which helps measure stages of risk, including distress (emotionally troubled), disturbance (increasingly disruptive, may be destructive and/or harmful to others), dysregualtion (suicidal, destructive to self, hostile) or medical disability (detached view of reality, not caring for one's physical self, at risk for grievous injury or death).
Sokolow shared some of his own experiences, and told of a college student he once dealt with who had been performing exceptionally well with a 4.0 GPA and outstanding behavior. However, one day, the student acted out.