Level 1 and Level 2 Trainings

B-HARP General and Advanced Trainings

For the General Training, which focused on the Salem-Keizer/Cascade Level 1 threat assessment process, administrators, counselors, and school psychologists from two local school districts, San Luis Coastal Unified and Coast Unified School Distict, attended the first training in late September of 2020. Additional participants were from Cal Poly-San Luis Obispo, mental health therapists from San Luis Obispo County Behavioral Health, San Luis County Sheriff's Office, and San Luis Obispo City Police Department. There were several attendees who were associated with community-based organizations and private mental health practice.

Despite being an 8 hour, virtual training divided into two, half-day sessions, 75 attendees participated in the event. A follow-up Level 1 Case Review with John Van Dreal was conducted with the Coast Unified School Team in February of 2021. San Luis Coastal Unified's school psychologists and administrators are scheduled to have a Level 1 Case Review with John Van Dreal in June of 2021.

The Advanced Training (Level 2) was conducted in October of 2020 in which twelve professionals representing educational institutions, mental health agencies, and law enforcement were recommended to attend. This 8-hour, two half-day training covered advanced threat assessment concepts as well as reviewed the role of the Level 2 Community Team within the Salem-Keizer/Cascade Model. The B-HARP Team has been receiving additional case reviews and mini-skills workshops with Dr. Tau that started in January 2021 and will conclude at the end of June of 2021.

Dr. Tau and Dr. Holifield are in the process of designing a specific training geared towards mental health professionals to be held in the near future. The plan is to offer continuing education credits to mental health professionals who attend. Dr. Holifield, Dr. Tau, and John Van Dreal are already collaborating for a follow-up General and Advanced Training for Fall of 2021. The training will include the members from the original training cohort as well as new members for the second training cohort.

September 2020 General Training. John Van Dreal, Dr. Joe Holifield, & Dr. Manny Tau.

Training Results

2020 Annual Training Series Results

B-HARP measures participant knowledge before and after the trainings to track training effectiveness and best meet the needs of our participants. In our Level 1 2020 Training Series, we saw a significant increase in level of participant knowledge and skill when compared to knowledge and skills before the training. This was a statistically significant increase between Pre and Post Surveys. The Level 2 Advanced Training participants exhibited an increase in knowledge and skill after the training.

2020 Level 2 Training Series Results

Those who completed the Level 1 and Level 2 Training in 2020 had the opportunity to join the Level 2, or Community Threat Assessment Team. The Level 2 Team also completed a six month training regiment with our consulting experts, where they were graded on their performance in conducting threat assessments on past cases. The team demonstrated a 40% increase in effectiveness of their threat assessments.

Other Accomplishments

Observation of Mid-Valley Student Threat Assessment Team

In December 2021, members of B-HARP's Community Threat Assessment Team observed and participated in a threat assessment meeting from with the Mid-Valley Student Threat Assessment Team. The Mid-Valley Team is an established community threat assessment team that was the first to implement the Salem-Keizer Model, the threat assessment model that B-HARP utilizes. The observation was an invaluable opportunity for B-HARP's Level 2 Team to note best practices, and provided a beneficial example to base their system off of.

B-HARP Community Partner Meetings

Observation of Mid-Valley Student Threat Assessment Team

Recognizing the importance of keeping our community partners informed, B-HARP conducts monthly meetings with members from county school districts, mental health organizations, law enforcement agencies, and educational institutions. This is a time to report progress the grant has made and discuss future grant actions all while hearing from and consulting with the community-wide team that supports

B-HARP.

Level 2 (Community Team) Meetings

The B-HARP Community Threat Assessment Team meets every two weeks with the primary objective of assisting any Level 1 Site Teams in threat assessment cases that necessitate a higher level of analysis and care. When there are not any community level cases to take on, the team practices and tests the B-HARP Threat Assessment Protocols utilizing case studies provided by our consulting experts.

Community Engagement

Level 2 (Community Team) Meetings

B-HARP is continuously pursuing and providing engagement in the educating of schools, school personnel, law enforcement officials, and mental health professionals in with the purpose of raising project awareness and increasing the threat assessment knowledge of the community.

Presentations Made

B-HARP has presented our project and systems to a multitude of organizations and boards in SLO County, including:

San Luis Obispo County Child Services Network
San Luis Obispo County Juvenile Justice Commission
San Luis Obispo County Sheriff's Department Administrators
San Luis Obispo County Behavioral Health Managers
Loma Vista and Chris Jespersen School Staff
Association of Threat Assessment Professionals - San Diego Chapter
Cal Poly San Luis Obispo
San Luis Obispo Department of Probation
Central Coast Psychological Association
SLO County Mental Health Services Act Stakeholders
SLO SEPLA Superintendent's Governing Counsel
Coast Unified School District Middle School and High School Staff
San Luis Coastal Unified School District School Board