Clinical supervision in prison settings: three strategies for approaching suicide risk
Journal of Aggression, Conflict and Peace Research
ISSN: 1759-6599
Article publication date: 13 July 2015
Abstract
Purpose
Delivering suicide risk services (SRS; i.e., assessment and intervention) is an important and demanding aspect of psychological practice in prison settings. Yet the authors know from the training literature that supervised opportunities to build skills in this domain are hard to obtain. The unpredictable nature of these crisis events and the seriousness of their consequences make it difficult for psychologists-in-training to gain experience managing them. An effective method for building the foundational base of such skill is through clinical activities during internship. The purpose of this paper is to introduce the topic from the perspective of doctoral psychology internship training in prisons. Conceptualized within a developmental training perspective, three specific supervisory actions that facilitate the practice of SRS for interns are detailed: locating opportunities to monitor the practice of developmentally appropriate SRS skills; utilizing an assessment tool to shape documentation and provide structured feedback on the quality of SRS work; and developing group-based role plays to practice the management skill of verbal interdisciplinary communication.
Design/methodology/approach
Conceptualized within a developmental training perspective, three specific supervisory actions that facilitate the practice of SRS for interns are detailed.
Findings
Findings include three actions: locating opportunities to monitor the practice of developmentally appropriate SRS skills; utilizing an assessment tool to shape documentation and provide structured feedback on the quality of SRS work; and developing group-based role plays to practice the management skill of verbal interdisciplinary communication.
Practical implications
The authors have proposed three clinical supervision activities that can be used to facilitate the SRS learning experience. The strategies proposed are flexible enough to address variability within an individual intern or across a group of interns. While the authors apply the activities to interns, the authors believe it can also be used with early career psychologists as they transition to licensure and/or clinical independence within this practice setting. Ongoing consideration of how supervision is used to transmit the essential skills in this setting is paramount, and the authors hope this paper has provided sufficient justification for beginning the dialogue in this area.
Originality/value
This work has never before been published.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
Portions of this work were presented at a panel for the 2009 Annual Convention of the American Psychological Association. The authors would like to acknowledge Alison Leukefeld for development of the Appendix and Maureen Burris for helpful suggestions on supervision.
Citation
Magaletta, P.R. and McLearen, A.M. (2015), "Clinical supervision in prison settings: three strategies for approaching suicide risk", Journal of Aggression, Conflict and Peace Research, Vol. 7 No. 3, pp. 149-157. https://doi.org/10.1108/JACPR-10-2014-0140
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2015, Emerald Group Publishing Limited