Continuing & Professional Studies, Palo Alto University

This self-paced training program on Fordham Risk Screening Tool (FRST) is presented by Melodie Foellmi, PhD.

This program teaches clinicians and clinical researchers to use the Fordham Risk Screening Tool (FRST; Rosenfeld, Foellmi, Khadivi, & Rotter), a violence risk screening tool, in psychiatric settings. The purpose of the FRST is to help clinicians and front-line staff make efficient, accurate decisions surrounding violence risk screening, in a manner that reduces potential bias. It is especially useful in settings where it is not possible to do a comprehensive violence risk assessment on every patient.

The FRST is a short, Structured Professional Judgment instrument that guides the clinician to consider different areas relevant to violence risk screening. The screening is completed via a brief review of available records, a 2-10 minute interview with the patient, and a simple rating system using a flow-chart. Once the clinician has completed the FRST, he or she arrives at a decision surrounding the need for and urgency of conducting a more comprehensive violence risk assessment. The FRST is based on theoretical and empirical knowledge on violence risk assessment and screening decision-making, and has been the subject of validation work in several inpatient civil psychiatric settings. In past studies, the FRST consistently showed very high sensitivity and was able to help clinicians identify patients who were most likely to have HCR-20V3 risk ratings of moderate or high.

This program helps individuals to think about how the FRST could increase the accuracy and efficiency of decision-making surrounding violence risk screening and triage in their specific work setting. Emphasis will be based on practice, as well as integrating the FRST into different clinical situations.