Methodological development: structured outcome assessment and community risk monitoring (SORM).
This paper describes an effort to develop a clinical tool for the continuous monitoring of risk for violence in forensic mental health clients who have left their institutions and who are dwelling in the community on a conditional release basis. The model is called Structured Outcome Assessment and Community Risk Monitoring (SORM). The SORM consists of 30 dynamic factors and each factor in SORM is assessed in two ways: The current absence, presence or partial och intermittent presence of the factors, which is an actuarial (systematized and 'objective') assessment. Secondly, the risk effect, i.e. whether the presence/absence of factors currently increases, decreases or is perceived as unrelated to violence risk, is a clinical (or impressionistic) assessment. Thus, the factors considered via the SORM can be coded as risk factors or protective factors (or as factors unimportant to risk of violence) depending on circumstances that apply in the individual case. Further, the SORM has a built-in module for gathering idiographical information about risk-affecting contextual factors. The use of the SORM and its potential as a risk monitoring instrument is illustrated via preliminary data and case vignettes from an ongoing multicenter project. In this research project, patients leaving any of the 9 participating forensic hospitals in Sweden is assessed at release on a variety of static background factors, and the SORM is then administered every 30 days for 2 years.
Grann
Martin
M
Centre for Violence Prevention (CVP), Karolinska Institute, P.O. Box 23000, SE-104 35 Stockholm, Sweden. Martin.Grann@cvp.se
Sturidsson
Knut
K
Haggård-Grann
Ulrika
U
Hiscoke
Ulrika L
UL
Alm
Per-Olof
PO
Dernevik
Mats
M
Gumpert
Clara
C
Hallqvist
Johan
J
Hallquist
Tommy
T
Kullgren
Gunnar
G
Långström
Niklas
N
Lotterberg
Malin
M
Nordström
Kristina
K
Ståhle
Birgitta
B
Woodhouse
Anni
A
D005555:Forensic Psychiatry / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006801:Humans; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000517:prevention & control; D010351:Patient Discharge / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D010865:Pilot Projects; D012111:Residence Characteristics; D012307:Risk Factors; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014754:Violence / Q000517:prevention & control / Q000706:statistics & numerical data