Psych-Tech is a psychiatric research and development group. Our primary objective is to develop products that aide in the prevention of violence. Since the early 1980s, our founder, Dr. Russell Copelan, has been laying the groundwork and promoting discussion among clinicians in the arena of violence and suicide assessment and prevention. Our goal is to achieve conceptual coherence and detailed understanding of violence assessment at its most specific level. We provide guidelines for risk assessment based in scientific knowledge, defined precisely, and designed for efficiency.

The determination of risk assessment is a complex and controversial issue. Misunderstandings and confusion in such requests could lead to inappropriate or counterproductive assessments. It is clear that early intervention poorly handled can produce toxic responses. Inappropriate labeling of a person in a stigma-ridden

community may render help more difficult, not less so. Evaluations should be conducted by clinicians who possess the necessary skill to do so. However, counselors and other professionals frequently conduct assessments without adequate training in the relevant legal and clinical disciplines. We help these evaluators conduct more accurate and meaningful assessments by providing the necessary research and groundwork for these skills to mature.

The center point of our studies on effective violence intervention is specificity - specificity of target populations, specificity of goals and purposes, and specificity of interventions and action programs. It seems likely that programs that triage early and provide timely treatment should significantly alter escalating violence numbers. Our line of assessments are being developed around the core belief that specificity is the key to effective intervention.