[1-day Short Course] Incorporating Desistance-informed Theories in Offender Case Management
About the Course
Establishing itself in the last 20 over years, the desistance paradigm has been influencing correctional assessment, offender management/sentence planning, probation services and community-based programming in many advanced jurisdictions. This shift towards a desistance paradigm has been welcomed as a promising approach beyond the Risk-Need-Responsivity (RNR) model and other dominant approaches to offender rehabilitation, accompanied by a burgeoning of desistance-related literature over the years. Research increasingly supports the phenomenon of enhanced correctional case management outcomes through the integration of strengths-based approaches with RNR principles. Alongside these findings, “Why offenders stop committing crime?” is an inquiry that has gained prominence in the work, enhancing the conventional approach that attends to “Why offenders commit crime?”. Desistance principles are presented with RNR (and strengths-based approach- the Good Lives Model [GLM]) to refine current services and practitioners can consider a wider perspective of offender reintegration. Narrative practice ideas will be incorporated to inform the posture and craft of the practitioner in supporting desistance, particularly in the work of in-prison programming, counselling, case management and providing probation services.
Objectives
At the end of the programme, participants are expected to achieve the following objectives:
- Identify how the structure of the family may have contributed to and may be impacted by the addiction and anti-social behaviour of the clients.
- Identify how family processes may have contributed to the addict's behaviour and how changes to it can be supportive of rehabilitation and reintegration.
- Enhance family's resilience in the face of multiple stressors brought by the addiction.
- List Models of Family Therapy that may be best suited to support rehabilitation and reintegration of the family.
At the end of the workshop, participants are expected to be able to do the following:
- Participants will be equipped to provide constructive critiques on their current case management framework.
- Participants will be able to provide a holistic intake assessment that incorporate a balanced approach in addressing the risk factors and enhancing the protective mechanisms to prevent re-offending.
Who Should Attend
Social workers and social service practitioners in the criminal justice system and anyone who has an interest in issues relating to crime, deviance, and criminal justice, who have:
- A degree in Psychology, Social Work, Counselling, or Sociology, or
- Relevant work experience in casework, rehabilitation work and counselling
Contact us
For any questions about this course, email us at swkcpepc@nus.edu.sg or call us at 6601 5960.
About the Instructor
Mr Anson Yoo
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Since 2003, Anson has assumed pastoral, clinical and leadership roles with community agencies serving desistors and persons recovering from addictions. He has headed the first halfway house running a nonfaithbased programme for the moderate to high-risk group, and has developed numerous inmate/family programmes, some still currently used in the institutions. Additionally, he runs addiction recovery support groups in the community, and provides psychotherapy and counselling services for individuals, couples and families. A notable part of his current long-term work is with men desisting from sexual offences. Anson is committed to an attachment-focused, collaborative, systemic, trauma-informed, social justice oriented and culturally sensitive approach. Method-wise, he flexibly adopts practices from narrative, systemic, emotion-focused, cognitive-behavioural, structural dissociation, adaptive information processing and Polyvagal traditions. Trained in working with trauma and dissociation, he is also an EMDR Certified Therapist (EMDRIA) and a Certified Brainspotting Therapist. Anson believes that healing and growth only happen in relationships where persons are embraced without judgment regardless of their life experiences, and when they are supported to recall, tolerate and retell their memories.