BIT/CARE TEAM CERTIFICATION
Dr. Brian Van Brunt has trained hundreds of BIT, CARE and threat teams across the globe. These communities span workplaces, K-12 schools, and college/university settings. Over the decades he has learned the importance of offering uniquely tailored trainings to better support the needs of each community he trained and consulted with, both virtually and on the road.
At D-Prep Safety, Brian has assembled a team of master trainers who provide high-quality, effective virtual and in-person trainings at a reasonable price point. They bring decades of subject matter expertise in diversity, equity and inclusion, legal reviews, counseling, law enforcement, conduct/discipline, and human resources.
Our first question to a new community partner is always, “Help us understand your unique needs and what resources we can bring to support, train and advise your community.” At D-Prep Safety, we prioritize our quality expert systems, training, and consulting reviews over profit margins. Our services are built to bring our community partners lasting change, rather than a one-and-done engagement.
For more information or to schedule any of these options, please contact bethany@dprep.com. Click "Learn More" for details on each of the courses.
Team Needs Assessment
-
Review your team through interviews, an online survey, and a review of materials and a live meeting
-
Assess the team based on national team standards and best practices
-
Receive a comprehensive report outlining areas performing well and those in need of improvement
Team Needs Assessment
When starting with a new community partner, whether they are just forming their BIT/CARE or threat team or have been in existence for years, we like to start with a needs assessment of the team. This process allows team members and key community partners to talk with our consultants via zoom, complete a quantitative survey and receive unique feedback on how the system is working and where there are opportunities for growth.
When performing an assessment, D-Prep Safety looks at team functionality, processes and community needs from a variety of perspectives. This includes online surveys, one-to-one conversations, observing team meetings and reviewing advertising/marketing materials, reporting forms and policy and procedure documents. Our observations are brought together to create a report and suggestions for training and/or team improvements.
This process typical takes about a month and includes the following:
-
An online survey for team and community members about the BIT/CARE or threat team (see a sample survey).
-
Individual Zoom interviews with team members and key community partners (see a sample scheduling page).
-
Review of existing marketing and policy and procedure for the BIT/CARE team.
-
Live audit of a team meeting via phone or Zoom.*
-
Assessment of the team based on national BIT/threat standards.
-
Development of a draft report and executive summary for the team outlining areas of success and identifying areas for improvement.
-
Feedback and corrections of draft and development of finalized report and executive summary.
We have found this assessment of your team improves the fidelity of training we offer and better ensures that it sticks. Another benefit is allowing your team and key community partners to share their thoughts directly with our team members in one-to-one interviews. This increases stakeholder buy-in at future meetings. Finally, it provides higher level administrators an assessment of the team’s work and a clear outlined path on how to quickly address any deficiencies.
*We provide confidentiality agreements to allow us to sit in on these meetings. Our staff are also comfortable signing a client’s confidentiality agreement (if one is required or available).
We created this needs assessment package with an awareness to the budgetary needs of schools, colleges, and workplaces. While there is a temptation to increase billing through expanding course concepts into multiple days, our goal is to deliver the information efficiently and with fidelity.
Cost for Virtual Assessment ($7500*)
This process is conducted virtually through online surveys, one-to-one conversations, observing team meetings and reviewing advertising/marketing materials, reporting forms and policy and procedure documents. Our observations are brought together to create a report and suggestions for training and/or team improvements. Two 90-minute virtual classes (see Tailored Trainings) scheduled at a convenient time for the school, college/university, housing authority or workplace are offered to address concerns identified in the assessment. When purchased in conjunction with the needs assessment package, additional trainings can be added for the cost of $750 per 90-minute online training (or five for $3000). As always, recordings of these trainings are provided for new team members and future review.
Cost for In-Person/Hybrid Assessment ($9500*)
This process is conducted through a one day visit and mixture of virtual interviews and meetings. This option allows for the campus visit to be used for either the assessment or for delivering the trainings in person. As above, a report with suggestions for training and/or team improvements is provided. Two 90-minute virtual classes (see Tailored Trainings) scheduled at a convenient time for the school, college/university, housing authority or workplace are offered to address concerns identified in the assessment. When purchased in conjunction with the needs assessment package, additional trainings can be added for the cost of $750 per 90 minute, online training (or five for $3000). As always, recordings of these trainings are provided for new team members and future review.
* This price is for a team of up to 15 people. Please contact us for larger teams or multiple teams.
Following the needs assessment, we offer the option of two 90-minute, online trainings and a digital/editable copy of our BIT/CARE policy and procedure template. These trainings are designed based on the need identified in the assessment and are individualized for your team needs. The trainings are recorded and hosted for you on a website created just for your team. Some examples of common areas of training we address are included below. These trainings can be shortened to 45-minutes and combined, however this will reduce the interactive nature of the training. Additional trainings can be added for the cost of $750 per training (or five for $3000) when purchased in conjunction with the needs assessment package. If you wish to purchase these courses without the needs assessment process, they are available at six courses for $7000.
-
A Sample Case: This training explores how a sample case should move from 1) behaviors occurring in the community, 2) behaviors shared with team, 3) contextual information gathering, 3) rating of risk level, 4) building culturally competent interventions, 5) ensuring an on-going and continuous model of risk management, 6) creating timely and defensible documentation, and 7) discussion of when to close a case.
-
Marketing and Advertising of Your Team: This discussion is based on the importance of educating your community about how to share concerns with your team. We will discuss creating brochures and handouts and look at examples of PSA awareness videos and BIT/CARE websites.
-
Doing Documentation Well: This training provides an overview of how to create quality documentation and ensure that your team members are contributing in an on-going fashion to your database. From avoiding short or emotional notes to being timely and non-technical in your descriptions, this training provides an excellent introduction and/or refresher to the importance of quality documentation.
-
Mitigating Bias in Data Gathering and Decision Making: This module includes a review of common forms of bias in both assessment and decision making and how we can mitigate them. Forms of bias discussed include confirmation and availability bias, the Dunning-Kruger effect, in/out group bias, group think and conformity.
-
Meeting Flow and Process: Using the D-Prep Safety C.A.S.E. model, this training helps participants understand how a case moves through the process of the initial report, analysis, assignment of a risk level to intervention. We focus on reducing bias, development of an efficacious and efficient meeting flow, encouraging critical debate, and contextual analysis.
-
Managing Suicide with a BIT/CARE Team: Chronic suicidal behavior is one of the greatest challenges faced by teams. This training reviews the signs and symptoms of suicidal ideation, the difference between a clinical and non-clinical assessment of suicide, how to use Pathways and the Suicide Wayfinder in a case example, and the challenges related to parental notification, on-going monitoring, medical leaves, and requests to return after a leave.
-
FERPA, HIPAA and State Confidentiality: There are many ways teams receive and share information within the team structure and to other key community partners. This training provides an overview of these three categories of information sharing and the limitations within each of these areas.
-
Feeling Threatened and Being Threatened: This course training helps the participants navigate the challenges presented by faculty and other community members and how talk with faculty, staff, parents, students, and the general community about threats (while staying in the limits of information privacy).
-
End of Semester/Year Reports: Sharing information back to the community or administration concerning the team’s functioning and progress during a semester or year of work is essential to encourage community buy-in as well as tune up areas of need in the team process. This training will walk you through some sample reports and outline the important metrics you need to include to have a complete report.
-
Managing Disruptive and Dangerous Behavior: Drawing on Brian’s work in his books A Faculty Guide to Disruptive and Dangerous Behavior and A Staff Guide to addressing Disruptive and Dangerous Behavior on Campus, this training will explore the difference between disruptive and dangerous behavior in and outside the classroom. The training will cover how to de-escalate a crisis when it occurs and the importance of sharing this information forward with your BIT/CARE team.
| Step | Item | Description | Percentage | Cost |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | #1: Sample Case | This program gives the team a useful overview of how the process should work on a sample case we can reference throughout the trainings. | 20% | $600 |
| 2 | #7: Confidentiality & #3: Documentation | These two topics on FERPA, HIPAA and State confidential law and the importance of documentation are each offered in 45-minute sections. How information was shared and where it is written down are two areas the team needs to improve. | 20% | $600 |
| 3 | #6: Suicide | As this is a major area of concern for the team, managing suicidal behavior is a topic will should cover. We will walk through a sample case using the Pathways/Suicide Wayfinder. | 20% | $600 |
| 4 | #5: Meetings | Helping improve meeting flow and process is another central goal for your team. We will discuss this with several sample cases and look at ways to do this more efficiently. | 20% | $600 |
| We retain 20% of the cost for D-Prep Safety staff overhead. This includes things like scheduling, zoom costs, editing and hosting videos online and managing email and phone conversations and questions. | 20% | $600 |
Dear Administrator,
I’d like you to consider the following request to complete a needs assessment of our team, [TEAM NAME]. After talking with Dr. Brian Van Brunt* and reviewing the attached proposal, I believe this is a good opportunity for our institution. The benefits of this needs assessment include:
-
The pricing model is transparent and reasonable for the amount of work they put into developing the assessment. The value we would get for the $7500 needs assessment is impressive and includes two 90-minute recorded trainings.
-
They look at the team from various perspectives. They conduct an online survey and up to twenty interviews with our team members and key stake holders who work with our team like campus police/safety, health services, counseling, ADA/504, orientation staff, residential life staff, academic tutoring, veteran services, DOS, VPSA, student conduct, Title IX, faculty representative, athletics, diversity office, PIO/emergency services, and a student group. They watch one of our meetings live to observe us in action and bring all of these observations together into a comprehensive report.
-
They provide a draft report we can review before finalizing. Brian also mentioned that if we prefer, the report could be classified as an attorney work product, and they can deliver this through their attorney to our attorney. This limits any discovery of potential areas we need to work on in the report.
-
Brian also mentioned that having key staff and team members share their thoughts directly with their team has helped people feel they are part of the process, and this leads to increased buy-in with the team and the community.
-
Brian and his group have literally written the book on BITs (actually, close to a dozen of them). I like they are up to date on their research, they contribute regularly to journals and have some free trainings and materials we can review and use whether we contract with them or not.
-
They included a process by which a team can be trained up after the assessment in threat assessment, intervention, and a team certification process. There is a large discount when trainings are purchased together, but I think this assessment and training deal is the best one for us.
I think this would be extremely valuable for our team. While we have knowledgeable staff on campus, there is a lot of value in hearing from an expert outside team on how we can fill in any exposure points in our work or legal liabilities.
*Past president and founding member of NABITA; past president of the American College Counseling Association; author of the NABITA Risk Rubric, Structured Interview for Violence Risk Assessment (SIVRA-35), Looking Glass, Violence Risk Assessment of the Written Work (VRAW2), the Extremist Risk Intervention Scale, and Incel Indoctrinating Rubric (IIR).
BIT/CARE Framework
-
Review the importance of a multidisciplinary team to assess cases and prevent silos
-
Understand the logistics required to build and operate a BIT/CARE team
-
Use DPrep's 35 team standards to develop and improve team processes
BIT/CARE Framework
The central building blocks for a BIT/CARE team are directly connected to the 35 standards. These involve training on topics related to four central categories, 1) team definition (the team’s purpose and scope of activities), 2) team operations (how the team is organized to meet team goals), 3) case processing (how the team manages a case through the initial report), 4) Continuous improvement (supporting the on-going functioning of the team and ensures the membership is supervised and trained and that processes are reviewed and maintained). This starting place allows teams to better understand the logistics required to build and operate a BIT/CARE team based on best-practice research standards. Whether your team is well-trained or just starting out, this overview of BIT/CARE core concepts provides the framework for an effective team.
Team definition outlines the team’s purpose and scope of activities.
-
Mission
-
Scope
-
Name
-
Team process
-
Membership
-
Multiple teams
Team operation defines how the team is organized to meet team goals.
-
Frequency of meetings
-
Leadership
-
Budget
-
Policies & procedures
-
Cultural awareness
-
Disability awareness
-
Website
-
Team presentation
-
Other marketing
Case processing describes how the team manages a case through the initial report, contextual information gathering, risk assessment, interventions, and documentation.
-
Receiving concerns
-
Concern forms
-
Information standards
-
Information sharing
-
Case discussion
-
Level of risk
-
Violence risk assessments
-
Psychological assessments
-
Interventions
-
Bias mitigation
-
Case management
-
Record keeping
-
Database utilization
Continuous improvement supports the team's ongoing functioning, ensures the membership is supervised and trained, and reviews and maintains processes.
-
Supervision & guidance
-
Training & development
-
Case evaluation
-
End-of-term reports
-
After-action reports
-
Needs assessment
-
Stress management
We created this course with an awareness to the budgetary needs of schools, colleges, and workplaces. While there is a temptation to increase billing through expanding course concepts into multiple days, our goal is to deliver the information efficiently and with fidelity.
Cost for Virtual Program ($7000)
The course is taught in six 90-minute virtual classes* scheduled at a convenient time for the school, college/university, housing authority or workplace.
Cost for In-Person/Hybrid Program ($8500)
The course is taught in-person in four 90-minute sections (two in the morning and two in the afternoon). Two 90-minute virtual classes* are also included, to be scheduled at a convenient time for the school, college/university, housing authority or workplace. Travel for the presenter(s) is included in the $8500 cost.
* This price is for a team of up to 15 people. Please contact us for larger teams. These trainings are recorded for future team members and review for existing team members and hosted on a specific, tailored site for your community.
Threat Assessment, Interviewing, and Report Writing
-
Understand the threat assessment process from the first concern to the final, comprehensive report
-
Gather information accurately and assess the risk based on interaction of risk and protective factors
-
Learn how to write an accurate, timely and meaningful report for decision makers
Threat Assessment, Interviewing, and Report Writing
Learning to complete a threat and violence risk assessment is like learning to play chess. The foundational concepts are fairly easy to teach and understand, but obtaining mastery comes with on-going study, guidance, and experience. This course is designed to provide BIT/CARE team members working in a K-12 school, college/university or workplace setting the skills they need to understand the terminology and process of violence risk and threat assessment, practical guidance regarding interviewing skills to obtain information from the person being assessed and direction on how to write a report in a way that provides useful and accessible guidance to the referral source.
D-Prep Safety brings together a team of diverse faculty to tackle this course from the perspectives of counseling, law enforcement, conduct, DEI, title IX and human resources to provide an intersectional perspective that draws from the best research and practice in each of these fields. The multi-disciplinary approach to threat assessment is a best practice supported by the leading governmental organizations and subject matter experts in the field.
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7100151/
https://nhttac.acf.hhs.gov/soar/eguide/resources/Building_a_Referral_Network
www.dhs.gov/sites/default/files/publications/threat_assessment_and_management_teams_v21.pdf
www.fbi.gov/file-repository/making-prevention-a-reality.pdf/view
www2.ed.gov/admins/lead/safety/threatassessmentguide.pdf
Module One: Overview of Threat/Risk Assessment Concepts
-
Defining threat, risk and psychological assessments
-
Defining affective vs. targeted/mission oriented violence
-
Examples of transient and substantive threats
-
Threat assessment process/team related to BIT/CARE model
-
Triage systems (Pathways) and VRA (Darkfox)
Module Two: Overview of Risk and Protective Factors
-
Balancing the assessment of risk and protective factors
-
Understand the role of cultural and neurodivergence in risk/protective factors
-
Exploration of risk factors (including incel & white supremacist violence)
-
Exploration of protective/anchor factors
Module Three: Interviewing Skills
-
Importance of building rapport during interviews
-
Mitigation bias during the information gathering phase
-
Contextual data, assessing online presence, and third-party reports
-
Creditability assessments, deception detection and managing impressions
-
Using a checklist to guide the process of assessment
-
Cultural competency in assessment
Module Four: Triage Assessment Examples
-
Defining triage assessments for each case on the team
-
Three cases explored as examples of triage assessments
-
Walk through of scoring cases on Pathways and develop intervention plans
-
Mitigation of bias through the use of expert system/checklist
Module Five: Violence Risk Assessment
-
Defining VRA and threshold for use
-
Continuing cases from Module Four with a VRA process
-
Walk through of scoring cases on DarkFox and developing intervention plans
-
Using a process gather data, identify risk factors, identify projective factors, apply rubric, create risk narrative, and develop and implement interventions
Module Six: Writing Reports
-
Review of three sample reports using the method outlined in module five
-
Discussion dos and don’ts concerning report writing
-
Review of sample report write-ups on the same cases used for Pathways and DarkFox in modules five and six to provide consistency
We created this course with an awareness to the budgetary needs of schools, colleges, and workplaces. While there is a temptation to increase billing through expanding course concepts into multiple days, our goal is to deliver the information efficiently and with fidelity.
Cost for Virtual Program ($7000)
The course is taught in six 90-minute virtual classes* scheduled at a convenient time for the school, college/university, housing authority or workplace.
Cost for In-Person/Hybrid Program ($8500)
The course is taught in-person in four 90-minute sections (two in the morning and two in the afternoon). Two 90-minute virtual classes* are also included, to be scheduled at a convenient time for the school, college/university, housing authority or workplace. Travel for the presenter(s) is included in the $8500 cost.
* This price is for a team of up to 15 people. Please contact us for larger teams. These trainings are recorded for future team members and review for existing team members and hosted on a specific, tailored site for your community. The course includes one-year access to both Pathways and DarkFox, which can be renewed at the cost of $750 per year.
Dear Administrator,
I’d like you to consider the following request to complete a Threat Assessment, Interviewing, and Report Writing training for our team, [TEAM NAME]. After talking with Dr. Brian Van Brunt* and reviewing the attached proposal, I believe this is a good opportunity for our institution. The benefits of this training include:
-
The pricing model is transparent and reasonable for the amount of work and detail that goes into the course. While $7000 is a substantial amount of money, the amount of value we get for this is impressive. This includes not only the live training, but six 90-minute recordings we are able to use for reference and new team members. If we choose to have them on campus for a day, we then have two supplemental 90-minute trainings that are recorded.
-
One-year access to the automated systems (Pathways risk rubric and DarkFox violence risk assessment) are included in the pricing, with discounted renewal pricing. They have a recurring cost of $750/year.
-
They also look at this issue from a culturally competent lens, leaning into experts such as Tammy Hodo from All Things Diverse and Jacque Whitfield from CPSHR. This helps ensure our threat work addresses and mitigates bias in the information gathering and intervention stages.
-
The use of multiple case studies will help us not only learn the threat assessment process, but how to use it. Brian also offered to take some of our cases and use them in the training to highlight some key points.
-
Brian and his group have literally written the book on threat assessment. They use their system and show how it is applied to national cases and contribute to the threat field through research and journals. They also offer free threat trainings and materials we can review and use without the need to invest more money that can help our team retain the knowledge shared.
-
They included a process by which a team can be trained up in an entire intervention, and team certification process as well. There is a larger discount when trainings are purchased together, but I think the threat assessment training is the one we are looking for most right now.
-
When I look at courses like these offered by other organizations, they break down these concepts into multiple day trainings to increase cost or are taught by people without practical threat assessment and psychological assessment experience. D-Prep Safety works to keep costs low and uses only highly experienced and knowledgeable instructors.
I think this would be extremely valuable for our team. While we have knowledgeable staff on campus, there is a lot of value in hearing from an expert outside team on how we can fill in any exposure points in our work or legal liabilities.
*Past president and founding member of NABITA; past president of the American College Counseling Association; author of the NABITA Risk Rubric, Structured Interview for Violence Risk Assessment (SIVRA-35), Looking Glass, Violence Risk Assessment of the Written Work (VRAW2), the Extremist Risk Intervention Scale, and Incel Indoctrinating Rubric (IIR).
Developing Effective Interventions
-
Ensure interventions are tied to the risk level, culturally informed, and well documented
-
Perfect the skills needed to build rapport, gather information and establish an approach to change
-
Understand that working with specialized groups requires awareness, knowledge, sensitivity and competency
Developing Effective Interventions
The central outcome of BIT/CARE and threat work is mitigating the risk through interventions, referrals, and connection to community-based support services. These interventions are the responsibility of everyone on the team, although some members may work more directly with students and/or community members. There also have been increasing numbers of schools, college/universities, housing agencies, and workplaces investing in case management and social workers to coordinate the intervention services being offered.
The skills needed to carry out this work include conducting an intake meeting, creating timely documentation, and developing a risk mitigation plan that considers the individual’s race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status, mental illness, physical disability, and religious and political beliefs. While many staff and team members offer these support services informally based on their history of positive interactions with individuals, having a formalized structure with defensible documentation is important for all of the interventions offered. By coordinating these services through the BIT/CARE team, we are able to better ensure the support being offered is tied to the level of risk, is equitable and inclusive, is able to bring about change, and is based on research and literature.
This course is ideal for BIT/CARE team members, law enforcement, resident directors, academic and career counselors, case managers, and orientation leaders to review the key factors in developing effective interventions.
Module One: Understanding Interventions in a BIT/CARE and Threat Context
-
The history of case management and wrap-around
-
Defining the relationship and the nature of helping
-
Required paperwork and discussing the difference between clinical/non-clinical
-
Reducing legal risk by ensuring the assessment matches the intervention
-
Building culturally competent interventions and for those with neurodiversity
-
Ensuring clear and consistent follow-up
Module Two: Intake
-
Review of the importance of the intake process
-
Defining areas of assessment during intake (e.g., symptoms, family, work, school)
-
Creating consistent intakes and risk mitigation plans
-
Additional forms: services expectations, release of information
-
Assessing for suicide and harm to others, referrals based on training/policy/scope
Module Three: Interventions Skills
-
Building rapport, bridge of connection, MORE PIES, micro-attendings skills
-
Identifying shared interests and commonalities
-
Addressing differences and mitigating bias
-
Hooks and barbs, motivational interviewing
Module Four: Referrals Options
-
Mental health: outpatient, group, social clubs, volunteer organizations, online therapy
-
Academic: career support, Tutoring, third-party, job-based, employee assistance
-
Social: family, siblings, extended family, intermural sports, clubs and organization online gaming, dance, book clubs, martial arts
-
Community Supports: Animal shelter, big brother/sister, shelters, hospice, nursing home
-
Religion: youth groups, choir, religious education, social justice groups, protests
Module Five: Working with Various Populations
-
Mental illness (depression, anxiety, thought disorders, ASD)
-
Veterans, GLBTQ, international students and online students
-
Greek life, first year students, non-traditional students
Module Six: Office Safety, Common Boundary Challenges
-
Review of officer safety procedures
-
Discussion of best practices and setting boundaries
-
Communicating and referring to other departments
We created this course with an awareness to the budgetary needs of schools, colleges, and workplaces. While there is a temptation to increase billing through expanding course concepts into multiple days, our goal is to deliver the information efficiently and with fidelity.
Cost for Virtual Program ($7000)
The course is taught in six 90-minute virtual classes* scheduled at a convenient time for the school, college/university, housing authority or workplace.
Cost for In-Person/Hybrid Program ($8500)
The course is taught in-person in four 90-minute sections (two in the morning and two in the afternoon). Two 90-minute virtual classes* are also included, to be scheduled at a convenient time for the school, college/university, housing authority or workplace. Travel for the presenter(s) is included in the $8500 cost.
* This price is for a team of up to 15 people. Please contact us for larger teams. These trainings are recorded for future team members and review for existing team members and hosted on a specific, tailored site for your community.
Dear Administrator,
I’d like you to consider the following request to complete a Effective Interventions training for our team, [TEAM NAME]. After talking with Dr. Brian Van Brunt* and reviewing the attached proposal, I believe this is a good opportunity for our institution. The benefits of this training include:
-
The pricing model is transparent and reasonable for the amount of work and detail that goes into the course. While $7000 is a substantial amount of money, the amount of value we get for this is impressive. This also includes six 90-minute recordings we are able to use for reference and new team members. If we choose to have them on campus for a day, we then have two supplemental 90-minute trainings that are recorded.
-
I like that they offer the team from various perspectives. I also like that they stress intervention as a skill all team members need, rather than just piling on intervention expectations onto a single team member.
-
They also look at this issue from a culturally competent lens, leaning into experts such as Tammy Hodo from All Things Diverse and Jacque Whitfield from CPSHR. This helps ensure our threat work addresses and mitigates bias in the information gathering and intervention stages.
-
There is no cap on who we have on the online or in-person training. Brian confirmed that we could have other people like front office staff, academic counselors, police, and others outside the team attend the training. I think that would be a great benefit because everyone on campus should have access to some of these interventions skills when working with our student.
-
Brian and his group have literally written the book on interventions with A Faculty Guide to Addressing Disruptive and Dangerous Behavior and a Staff Guide to Addressing Disruptive and Dangerous Behavior.
-
They include a process by which a team can be trained up as an entire threat assessment and team certification process as well. There is a discount when trainings are purchased together, but I think the interventions training is the one we are looking for most right now.
-
When I look at courses like these offered by other organizations, they break down these concepts into multiple day trainings to increase cost or are taught by people without practical threat assessment and psychological assessment experience. D-Prep Safety works to keep costs low and uses only highly experienced and knowledgeable instructors.
I think this would be extremely valuable for our team. While we have knowledgeable staff on campus, there is a lot of value in hearing from an expert outside team on how we can fill in any exposure points in our work or legal liabilities.
*Past president and founding member of NABITA; past president of the American College Counseling Association; author of the NABITA Risk Rubric, Structured Interview for Violence Risk Assessment (SIVRA-35), Looking Glass, Violence Risk Assessment of the Written Work (VRAW2), the Extremist Risk Intervention Scale, and Incel Indoctrinating Rubric (IIR).
Certification
-
Team has achieved and demonstrates competence and application of core team processes
-
Demonstrated risk mitigation through live team discussion on a wide variety of practical case examples
-
Formalization and memorializing team processes to ensure continual improvement
Team Certification
Team certification involves completing a series of trainings to move beyond competence to proficiency. The course itself is based on the practical application of team foundational skills, triaging at-risk behaviors, applying threat and risk assessment, and developing and managing a threat/risk mitigation plan through the application of effective interventions.
This is demonstrated through the team participating in a variety of live case assessments and interventions during an in-person or online interactive experiences. The team is provided an initial report and moves through the gathering of information, applying a triage rubric, and developing effective and culturally appropriate interventions. Teams receive feedback from multiple subject matter experts and instructors during the process.
Teams that complete the certification process are provided three-years access to Pathways and DarkFox at no charge. Recertification occurs every three years for a team. The process involves completing the course again with new cases and ensuring new team members are able to stay in line with best practices.
Each case is reviewed for the following:
-
Contextual analysis and mitigation of bias
-
Application of triage and VRA threat processes
-
Development of comprehensive mitigation plan
Module One: Discussion of Case Process/Walk Through
-
Discussion of process for team certification
-
Sample case walk through to demonstrate ideal process/outline
-
Questions and discussion
-
Outline of upcoming cases
Module Two: Threats
-
Case which involves online and in-person threats
-
Application of triage (e.g., Pathways)
-
Application VRA/threat (e.g., DarkFox)
-
Development of threat mitigation plan
Module Three: Suicide
-
Case which involves threat of suicide and hospitalization
-
Application of triage (e.g., Pathways)
-
Application of non-clinical suicide tool (e.g., Suicide WayFinder)
-
Development of threat mitigation plan
Module Four: Dating Violence and Threat
-
Case which involves threats related to dating violence
-
Application of triage (e.g., Pathways)
-
Application of VRA/threat (e.g., DarkFox)
-
Development of threat mitigation plan
Module Five: Behavior Management/Thought Disorder
-
Case which involves hallucinations, delusions and behavior problems
-
Application of triage (e.g. Pathways)
-
Application of VRA/threat (e.g., DarkFox)
-
Development of threat mitigation plan
Module Six: Undefined “Surprise” Case
-
Case is not described beforehand
-
Demonstration of application of applicable systems and tools
We created this course with an awareness to the budgetary needs of schools, colleges, and workplaces. While there is a temptation to increase billing through expanding course concepts into multiple days, our goal is to deliver the information efficiently and with fidelity.
Cost for Virtual Program ($7000)
The course is taught in six 90-minute virtual classes* scheduled at a convenient time for the school, college/university, housing authority or workplace.
Cost for In-Person/Hybrid Program ($8500)
The course is taught in-person in four 90-minute sections (two in the morning and two in the afternoon). Two 90-minute virtual classes* are also included, to be scheduled at a convenient time for the school, college/university, housing authority or workplace. Travel for the presenter(s) is included in the $8500 cost.
* This price is for a team of up to 15 people. Please contact us for larger teams. These trainings are recorded for future team members and review for existing team members and hosted on a specific, tailored site for your community.
Dear Administrator,
I’d like you to consider the following request to complete a Team Certification for our team, [TEAM NAME]. After talking with Dr. Brian Van Brunt* and reviewing the attached proposal, I believe this is a good opportunity for our institution. The benefits of this training include:
-
The pricing model is transparent and reasonable for the amount of work and detail that goes into the course. This gives our team an opportunity to work five detailed table top cases and receive feedback from subject matter experts.
-
They give us two options to approach this. We are able to go through their entire set of courses at significant discount or we are able to move through course to course. That gives us a good amount of budget flexibility.
-
This is an excellent capstone to our training process. After talking with Brian, we also learned they are able to certify teams that use any assessment process, not just Pathways or DarkFox. They are willing to count our teams attendance at the previously attended BIT Foundations course as well as the course in threat assessment.
-
They also look at this issue from a culturally competent lens, leaning into experts such as Tammy Hodo from All Things Diverse and Jacque Whitfield from CPSHR. This helps ensure our threat work addresses and mitigates bias in the information gathering and intervention stages.
-
There are a number of benefits to team certification. These are included in another document attached to this.
-
Brian and his group have literally written the book on BITs (actually, close to a dozen of them). I like they are up to date on their research, they contribute regularly to journals and have some free trainings and materials we can review and use whether we contract with them or not.
-
They included a process by which a team can be trained up as an entire needs assessment, threat, and intervention process as well. There is a discount when trainings are purchased together, but I think the certificate is the one we are looking for most right now.
-
When I look at courses like these offered by other organizations, they break down these concepts into multiple day trainings to increase cost or are taught by people without practical threat assessment and psychological assessment experience. D-Prep Safety works to keep costs low and uses only highly experienced and knowledgeable instructors.
I think this would be extremely valuable for our team. While we have knowledgeable staff on campus, there is a lot of value in hearing from an expert outside team on how we can fill in any exposure points in our work or legal liabilities.
*Past president and founding member of NABITA; past president of the American College Counseling Association; author of the NABITA Risk Rubric, Structured Interview for Violence Risk Assessment (SIVRA-35), Looking Glass, Violence Risk Assessment of the Written Work (VRAW2), the Extremist Risk Intervention Scale, and Incel Indoctrinating Rubric (IIR).
Our Team
Brian Van Brunt, EdD, is the Director of Behavior and Threat Management for D-Prep Safety. Author of over a dozen books, Brian has spent time as a child and family therapist, university professor, assistant deputy director of training at Secure Community Network, partner at TNG, and president of the National Association for Behavioral Intervention and Threat Assessment (NABITA). He is an internationally recognized expert in behavioral intervention, threat assessment, mental illness, crisis preparedness and response, and instructional design. Brian has provided consulting services to schools, colleges, and universities across the country and abroad on a wide variety of topics related to student mental health, counseling, campus violence, and behavioral intervention.
Tammy L. Hodo, PhD, has been working in the diversity, equity, and inclusion field for most of her professional career. Being biracial and reared in the Midwest, Tammy learned early on that race, although a social construct, impacts life chances and experiences. She has the lived experience of being both European American and African American. Coming from a middle-class family and being reared in a predominantly white space provided her opportunities she would later learn were not available to everyone that presented/looked like her. She has written peer-review articles about the experiences of minorities in academia.
Lisa Pescara-Kovach, PhD, is a professor of educational psychology at The University of Toledo where she also serves as the Director of the Center for Education in Mass Violence and Suicide and Chair of the Mass Violence Collaborative. Lisa’s international and national level peer-reviewed and invited presentations include, but are not limited to, the topics of suicides and homicides related to bullying victimization, behavioral threat assessment, and school, campus, and workplace shootings. Lisa co-authored White Supremacist Violence: Understanding the Resurgence and Stopping the Spread. Her most recent publications address media contagion in connection to suicides and targeted shootings as well as the mental health and mass shooting myth.
Chris Taylor, PhD, a 30-year veteran of higher education, serves as the executive director of the International Association for Care and Threat Teams (InterACTT). He recently left his position as the dean of students and chief student affairs officer at Wright State University in Dayton, Ohio where he had responsibility for counseling and wellness, student advocacy, student union and programs, recreational sports, residence life, and student conduct. He also chaired the university CARE and threat team. He has served on the leadership team for the Association of Student Conduct Administrators, and has been a member of NASPA, ACPA, ACUHO-I, and the American Men's Studies Association. He is a trained Title IX adjudicator and has also worked with D Stafford and Associates as a national Clery Act consultant.
David Denino, LPC, NCC, worked in higher education and college counseling over the past several decades and is director emeritus of counseling services at Southern Connecticut State University. David is a master trainer of Question Persuade Refer (QPR) and was the key person in bringing the QPR model to the state university system in Connecticut. A certified clinical trauma professional, David is also a Red Cross mental health first responder and is the mental health lead for the states of Connecticut and Rhode Island. As such, he has assisted with relief efforts for hurricanes Katrina, Sandy, and Harvey as well as provided mental health support at the Sandy Hook and Las Vegas shootings.
Amy Murphy, PhD, serves as an associate professor of student development and higher education leadership at Angelo State University. She is also the program coordinator for the M.Ed. in student development and leadership in higher education as well as the graduate certificate in academic advising, both fully online programs. Amy has more than 20 years of experience in higher education and student affairs. She is formerly the dean of students and managing director of the Center for Campus Life at Texas Tech University. Her experiences include chair of the school’s behavioral intervention team, oversight of prevention and response activities for gender-based violence and discrimination as the deputy Title IX coordinator for students, as well as administrative involvement in student conduct, disability services, counseling, and enrollment management.
Robert Scholz, MA, LMFT, LPCC, is a licensed psychotherapist in California and Arizona, as well as a consultant and trainer throughout the United States. He has served in many clinical and leadership roles over the past 25 years, working in university, community mental health, forensic and private practice settings. Robert is well-known for his work as a trainer and consultant in assisting schools/universities and communities respond to major crisis events like wildfires, mass shootings, deaths of students/employees and responding to sexual and other types of interpersonal violence. He serves as the clinical supervisor for the Route 91 So Cal Heals project, which provides case management, peer support and support group care for survivors and family members impacted by the Las Vegas and Borderline Nightclub mass shootings.
Jacques Whitfield, JD, is a seasoned human resources executive with over 25 years of experience in human resources management. Jacques recently completed a six year tenure as the chief human resources officer for the Yuba Community College District. Jacques was responsible for the management and oversight of the human resources operations for the district and is credited with revitalizing and streamlining the human resource operations for the Yuba Community College District. Jacques is a subject matter expert in performance management, employee engagement and state and federal EEO compliance matters. He is highly accomplished in successfully working with others to develop professional skills and improve employee effectiveness through training and development. Jacques is a frequent speaker, trainer and presenter.