Assessing Workplace & Campus Violence in the age of COVID-19: An introduction to the WAVR-21 Version 3
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Training Description
This training offers an introduction to Version 3 of the Workplace Assessment of Violence Risk-21 (WAVR-21), with additional comments on how it may be useful in cases that raise concern due to extremist or conspiratorial beliefs. Case examples and brief vignettes will introduce attendees to how the WAVR-21 is applied in practice. The WAVR-21 is a 21-item coded instrument for the structured assessment of workplace and campus targeted violence risk. Consisting of both static and dynamic evidence-based risk factors, the WAVR-21 can be combined with users’ clinical or professional judgment to reliably identify and assess the motives, nature, frequency, and severity of both homicidal and non-homicidal aggression in work and higher education settings. Relevant behaviors of concern such as stalking, anger problems, violent delusions, bullying, and personal stressors, are also coded, as well as organizational contributors to violence risk. The WAVR-21 may be used by the members of multi-disciplinary threat assessment and management (TAM) teams who typically work in organizations, risk assessment mental health professionals who consult to or conduct formal assessments in work or campus settings, law enforcement professionals and security consultants.
Presenter Biographies:
Stephen G. White, PhD is a psychologist and the president of Work Trauma Services Inc., a threat assessment consulting and training group. For the past 30 years, Dr. White has consulted on several thousand violence risk cases and conducted in-depth threat assessment training for numerous Fortune 500 companies, private and public organizations, law firms and their clientele, colleges and universities, law enforcement and federal government agencies. He has authored or co-authored peer-reviewed publications and chapters on stalking, workplace and campus mass murder, violence risk assessment, autism and violence, and workplace trauma management. This includes his collaboration with Dr. Meloy, with whom he co-developed the WAVR-21. Dr. White is a Contributing Editor for the Journal of Threat Assessment and Management and an Associate Clinical Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of California, San Francisco, where he has co-facilitated professional development groups for medical students. He is a frequent guest lecturer at regional, national, and international forums for security, human resource, and mental health professionals, campus administrators, law enforcement agencies, and employment law attorneys.
Philip Saragoza, M.D. is a board-certified forensic psychiatrist and an adjunct Clinical Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Michigan Medical School. Prior to beginning his private practice as a clinical and forensic psychiatrist, Dr. Saragoza served as the Director of UM’s Forensic Psychiatry Clinic, conducting evaluations and consultations on issues related to violence risk, fitness for duty, psychiatric disability, civil commitment, need for guardianship or conservatorship, and other forensic issues. He is the psychiatric consultant for the University’s integrated disability management program and the University health system’s employee assistance program. Through these agencies, he has conducted case consultations involving claims of hostile work environment, workplace harassment, and employee violence risk. Dr. Saragoza previously worked for several years as a Consulting Forensic Examiner at the State of Michigan’s Center for Forensic Psychiatry, a high-security hospital for mentally ill offenders. There, he treated inpatients found Incompetent to Stand Trial or legally insane, performed release-planning risk assessments, and conducted court-ordered examinations of competency and sanity. Dr. Saragoza has conducted hundreds of assessments of individuals who have engaged in threats, stalking and violent behavior, and has served as an expert witness on civil and criminal psychiatric issues in numerous courts. As an educator, Dr. Saragoza supervises residents and fellows in forensic psychiatry and provides lectures and seminars to a wide variety of professionals, including mental health professionals in academic and community settings, corporate and human resource managers, and campus audiences. His peer-reviewed publications include topics such as psychopathy, malingering, workplace violence risk, and the role of expert opinion in various criminal contexts. Dr. Saragoza joined WTS in 2015 and is now a senior associate, providing violence risk assessments, training, and forensic and psychiatric consultation to WTS associates and our clients.
Learning Objectives
At the end of this training, participants will be able to…
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- Describe the evidence-based rationale for using the WAVR-21 Version 3.
- Identify “red flag” indicators for predatory violence risk..
- Identify how the WAVR-21 is separate from but contributes to professional judgement and ongoing case management decision making.
