Early recognition method : ‘Opening doors’ in risk management dialogue between mental health and prison services

In secured institutions, which include prison services, violence between clients or towards staff has a major impact, eliciting feelings of stress, anger and fear for those involved. In this chapter we explain how violence can be understood as a complexity of multiple factors, and why a structured risk management strategy is necessary to adequately assess and manage violence. We describe specifically the Early Recognition Method (ERM) as a step-wise forward strategy aiming to identify, formulate and manage early warning signs of violence and allows a risk management dialogue to develop between prison staff and inmates. The ERM-dialogue strategy has successfully been developed and applied in forensic psychiatry and in this chapter we explore how, in a process of innovation, the knowledge and research of the ERM-applied in forensic services, has been transferred to prison services. The ‘multivoicedness’ of the ERM is explored through the theoretical concept of the ‘Self’.