Immersive Training in Outpatient Violence Prevention

Participants will gain practical, integrative competencies across the full arc of clinical violence prevention, including:

• Situational awareness and environmental safety assessment in outpatient settings
• Behavioral de-escalation techniques for the acutely agitated or threatening patient
• Structured violence and suicide risk assessment using the validated VASA Scale
• Clinical interviewing strategies for the potentially violent patient
• Legal and ethical obligations under Tarasoff, Duty to Protect, and Red Flag laws
• Safety planning and structured discharge protocols following violence risk assessment
• Active threat response and shots-fired protocols for the clinical environment

• Identify environmental risk factors and implement situational awareness strategies to enhance safety in outpatient clinical settings
• Apply evidence-based behavioral de-escalation techniques to effectively manage acutely agitated or potentially violent patients
• Conduct structured violence and suicide risk assessments using the VASA Scale and integrate findings into clinical decision-making
• Demonstrate effective clinical interviewing skills when evaluating patients who present with threats, agitation, or a history of violence
• Articulate clinician obligations under Tarasoff, Duty to Protect statutes, and relevant Red Flag laws, and apply these to real-world clinical scenarios
• Develop individualized safety discharge plans and apply structured protocols to manage patients following a violence risk assessment
• Describe active threat response procedures, including shots-fired protocols, and apply these to clinical workplace safety planning

This intensive, one-day program combines video observation, evidence-based didactic instruction, case practice examples, and structured group discussion to ensure that skill transfer is immediate and clinically grounded — not merely informational. Participants will have the opportunity to apply assessment tools in real time, discuss their own clinical cases, and receive expert guidance in a small-group format.

This program is designed for licensed mental health clinicians — psychiatrists, psychologists, social workers, and counselors — practicing across inpatient and outpatient settings who encounter patients with a history of, or risk for, violence, aggression, or threats to self or others.

Robert E. Feinstein, MD is a board-certified psychiatrist, psychoanalyst, and Professor of Clinical Psychiatry at Northwell/Zucker/Hofstra School of Medicine, with over 40 years of clinical, supervisory, and academic experience. He is founder and CEO of Empathian and has held senior academic leadership roles across Columbia University, New York Medical College, the University of Colorado, and Dell Medical School. He is the author of more than 100 publications and three Oxford University Press textbooks.