The BC Care Providers Association (BCCPA) is pleased to announce an upcoming training workshop exclusive to BCCPA service-provider members. We have partnered with The Forensic Alliance (TFA) to host a half-day workshop that will give care providers knowledge to assist them with their daily care of their clients including prior to and subsequent to critical incidents to promote effective assessment and management of clients in care homes.
Workshop Topic
Effective Interviewing of Residents with Special Needs
Geriatric residents in care facilities often present with special needs, including cognitive deficits, mental and physical health problems, personality issues and/or substance abuse problems. These characteristics place them at risk to become involved in various critical incidents, from disruptive outbursts to complaints of maltreatment to aggression and violence. To mitigate the risk of further critical incidents, it is imperative that we learn from them when they occur through effective interviewing. However, the same special needs characteristics that put geriatric residents at risk of being involved in a critical incident make them challenging to interview.
This presentation will provide an introduction to the StepWise Approach to Effective Interviewing for use by care providers during their daily work with geriatric residents, including before and after critical incidents. The StepWise method is used internationally for a variety of fact-finding and related purposes with a variety of populations. It is a semi-structured interviewing model that minimizes the impact of the interview upon geriatric resident interviewees while concurrently maximizing the quantity and quality of the information obtained. In this presentation, participants will learn about what factors to consider when preparing for an interview (e.g., from gaining insight into the resident interviewee and his / her special need strengths and weaknesses to preparing the interview environment). Participants will learn about developing rapport and assessing baseline, and how to use this information to adapt the interview to the resident’s special needs. Participants will learn about memory-based interviewing in order to maximize the amount of information gained from an interview without contaminating it. Throughout this presentation, participants will gain insight into how to adapt the various interview steps to the special needs of their residents. The presentation will end with a discussion of the importance of staff mental health and support in promoting effective interviews. Basic knowledge in these areas will be honed through didactic lecture and case studies.
Workshop Leaders
Dr. Barry Cooper is a Registered Psychologist in Kelowna, BC, practicing in clinical and clinical-forensic contexts. A former Senior Psychologist for the Correctional Service of Canada and a former Psychologist for the Forensic Psychiatric Services Commission, he is a founding Partner and Vice President of Research and Development for The Forensic Alliance. He is also the Director of the Interprofessional Clinic at the University of British Columbia-Okanagan and an Adjunct Professor in the Department of Psychology at Simon Fraser University. Additionally, Dr. Cooper is in private practice which involves assessment and consultation services. His interests include investigative interviewing, memory, credibility assessment, special needs, and risk assessment. He has provided training to various groups including mental health and criminal justice professionals. Dr. Cooper has also provided evidence at Review Board hearings and has served as an expert witness in court for both the prosecution and defence.
Dr. Hugues Hervé is a Registered Psychologist in British Columbia, Canada, who specializes in forensic and medico-legal assessments and evaluations. A former psychologist for the Correctional Service of Canada and the Forensic Psychiatric Services Commission, he is currently a Partner and Vice President of Consulting Services of The Forensic Alliance and the President of The Forensic Practice. Committed to the investigation, application and dissemination of sound clinical-forensic practice, he is actively involved in providing consulting, training and research services to various professionals groups and organizations on such topics as eyewitness memory, evaluating truthfulness, investigative interviewing, psychopathology, working with special needs, and the assessment of malingering, mental health, intellectual functioning, psychological injuries and risk for future violence.
Details
When: Wednesday, October 21, 2015
Where: Dufferin Care Centre – 1131 Dufferin St., Coquitlam, B.C.
Value: This complimentary workshop is exclusive to BCCPA members and is valued at a price of over $250.
This event is brought to you by:
The Forensic Alliance (TFA) is a British Columbia based company that provides research, consulting and training services to the criminal justice and health care systems and related partners. TFA was formed to bridge the gap between the behavioral sciences and applied practice and has provided training to numerous groups such as geriatric care home providers, mental health professionals, law enforcement, lawyers, and judges.
