Critical Issues for First Responders in Criminal Justice Practice

The seminar topic is 'Critical Issues for First Responders in Criminal Justice Practice' and will feature presentations from two international guest speakers:

• First responders; working with forensic populations in trauma; managing clients' disclosures of abuse; staff wellbeing
  Prof Jane L. Ireland (Forensic Psychologist, Chartered Psychologist, and Chartered Scientist) will explore the complexities of working with forensic populations in the area of trauma, examine the challenges first responders face in helping their clients and confronting clients’ discourses of abuse, and discuss how such disclosures of abuse should be managed, with staff wellbeing in mind. 
• Police wellbeing: exploring burnout and secondary trauma among police personnel investigating child protection cases
  Dr Michael Lewis (Chartered Psychologist, Registered Forensic Psychologist, Chartered Scientist, and Associate Fellow of the British Psychological Society) will explore burnout, compassion fatigue, secondary trauma and associated risk factors among police and staff working in the field of child protection who are routinely required to examine a range of explicit and potentially disturbing material on a regular basis. The presentation will capture the various challenges first responders face in helping their clients and confronting the clients’ discourses of abuse, how such disclosures of abuse should be managed and how staff should be aware of their own well-being.

The seminar is located in UTS Building 10, Level 3, Room 470, 235 Jones St, Ultimo NSW 2007 - see map. There is an underground parking station beneath UTS Building 10 - see Interpark. There is limited timed street parking outside.

DETAIL:

Prof Jane L. Ireland holds a Professorial Chair at the University of Central Lancashire. She is Violence Treatment Lead within High Secure Services, Ashworth Hospital and an EMDR Europe Accredited Clinical Supervisor/Consultant. She is elected Academy Fellow of the Council of the Academy of Social Sciences, Fellow of the International Society for Research on Aggression (ISRA) and was a member of the REF panel for Psychology and Psychiatry (2017, 2021). Prof Ireland publishes widely in the area of forensic psychology, with in excess of 150 publications and several handbooks, with her more recent publications focusing on multi-study work in forensic areas, including trauma.

Prof Jane L. Ireland's seminar presentation will explore the complexities of working with forensic populations in the area of trauma and critically assess how the concept of ‘first responder’ is a broad one. The presentation will capture the various challenges first responders face in helping their clients and confronting the clients’ discourses of abuse, how such disclosures of abuse should be managed and how staff should be aware of their own well-being. It will illustrate the importance of theory – including the Information Processing of Trauma Model and the Perception Action Model of empathy, alongside concepts such as moral injury and emotional labour. Some reflections for moving forward are also outlined in the presentation.

Dr Michael Lewis a ward liaison psychologist for a medium secure psychiatric service, as well as the course lead for the MSc Applied Forensic Psychology programme at the University of Central Lancashire, Preston, UK. Dr Lewis is also Editor-In-Chief of the Journal of Criminological Research, Policy and Practice, and a Research Lead at the Ashworth Research Centre. He is research active with interests in personality pathology, aggression, and psychological trauma. Dr Lewis also has a background in policing.

Dr Lewis's presentation will feature research conducted with a mixed methods design, first quantitatively exploring the prevalence of burnout and compassion fatigue among police investigators, as well as the risk factors associated with such. Further exploration of these risk factors was facilitated via semi-structured interviews. There was also a focus on exploring situational and organisational challenges thought to be maintaining difficulties, including but not limited to police culture. The findings of this work will be discussed with recommendations proposed to protect the wellbeing of police personnel working in this specialist area of law enforcement.

This seminar is part of the Translational Criminology Seminar Series, hosted by the Crime and Security Science Research Group, Faculty of Arts & Social Sciences, University of Technology Sydney