Enhancing Protective Factors in the Management of Violence Risk in Long-Term Psychiatric Care

Protective Factors in Forensic Practice: The Added Value of the SAPROF-Extended Version Pilot in Relation to Aggressive Incidents

“…The first goal of forensic psychiatric treatment is to prevent recidivism by addressing factors related to future violent behavior (Nedopil, 2009). Therefore, repeated and accurate risk assessment is needed during treatment to determine which specific criminogenic needs should be addressed to protect society (Neves et al, 2019). Currently, various structured instruments for risk assessments of adults are available (Hogan & Olver, 2019).…”

“…In addition to targeting risk factors, forensic psychiatric treatment aims to promote secure recovery (i.e., restoration of mental health and social functioning) to enable safe reintegration into society (Nedopil, 2009; Neves et al, 2019). To address this second—but equally important to the first—goal, scholars and treatment providers have started challenging the one-sided view of altering an individual’s potential for future violence through diminishing risk factors alone (Rogers, 2000).…”

“…Despite the overall positive findings regarding the validity of the SAPROF, clinicians from long-term inpatient settings have commented that the original SAPROF is not fully sufficient to assess all the relevant protective factors for this setting and that the clinical utility of protective factors for treatment and supervision practice could be further enhanced. Patients with a severe psychiatric disorder and a long-term care trajectory and/or patients with an intellectual disability often need intensive support, and protective factors may play an important role in their recovery (Jankovic et al, 2021; Neves et al, 2019). Therefore, it has been proposed that extending the original SAPROF with additional protective factors could possibly be valuable for risk assessment and treatment guidance, especially in inpatient forensic practice (Neves et al, 2019).…”

“…Patients with a severe psychiatric disorder and a long-term care trajectory and/or patients with an intellectual disability often need intensive support, and protective factors may play an important role in their recovery (Jankovic et al, 2021; Neves et al, 2019). Therefore, it has been proposed that extending the original SAPROF with additional protective factors could possibly be valuable for risk assessment and treatment guidance, especially in inpatient forensic practice (Neves et al, 2019).…”

“…To develop more tailored assessments, suggestions for additional protective factors were gathered to complement the original list of protective factors in the SAPROF. These new protective factors came from literature reviews on strengths for individuals with intellectual disabilities as well as from literature regarding desistance for individuals in long-term psychiatric care (for a more detailed description see De Vries Robbé et al, 2018, or Neves et al, 2019). Both approaches led to overlapping insights regarding strengths for these groups of individuals and brought forth similar suggestions for additional protective factors to supplement the SAPROF.…”