One of our adult tract speakers provided a synopsis of the topics he will be covering on Thursday, Aug 8th. It appears to cover a wide variety of training topics and inform each of our specialty areas.
The conference planning committee will continue to provide live updates via our Conference Calendar (click link to see). You can register via our website at IdahoATSA.com. If your organization needs a group invoice you may contact us at Idaho.ATSA.Conference@gmail.com.
Hope to see you all there!
Robert McGrath
Idaho ATSA Sessions for August 8, 2019
Biography. Robert McGrath is President of McGrath Psychological Services, a training and consulting practice, and was Clinical Director of the Vermont Department of Corrections integrated network of prison and community sex offender treatment programs for over 20 years. He has served on the treatment advisory boards of several treatment programs In the United States and the national sex offender treatment programs in Canada, the United Kingdom, and Hong Kong. He was co-chair of the committee that wrote ATSA’s 2014 Practice Guidelines for the Assessment, Treatment, and Management of Male Adult Sexual Abusers, and he received ATSA’s Significant Lifetime Achievement Award in 2015. Among his over 50 publications, he is co-developer of the ROSAC, VASOR-2, and SOTIPS risk assessment instruments.
Morning:
What Makes an Effective Program?
This session will review what we know about what works and what doesn’t in the treatment, supervision, and management of men who have committed sexual offenses. We will examine the most recent studies on the effectiveness of treatment and the characteristics of effective programs. The focus will be on how treatment providers and supervision staff can use these findings in their day-to-day work.
Managing Problematic Sexual Urges and Fantasies
Sexual offense related interests, urges, and fantasies are linked to an increased risk of sexual reoffending among individuals convicted of sexual crimes. These problems are therefore important treatment targets in sex offender rehabilitation programs. This session will review strategies for helping individuals use environmental, cognitive, behavioral, and pharmacological interventions to better manage problematic sexual urges and fantasies.
Afternoon:
Conducting Child Contact Assessments Using the ROSAC
Mental health, probation and parole, corrections, and child protective services professionals are commonly asked to assess the risk a sexual abuser poses to a particular child and under what circumstances, if any, the abuser might safely be allowed contact with the child. The Risk of Sexual Abuse of Children (ROSAC) uses a Structured Professional Judgment model for conducting these types of risk of sexual harm assessments. The ROSAC is composed of 30 items that are grouped into three categories; factors concerning the abuser, child at potential risk, and primary caregiver. This half-day session will review the theory and research basis for the ROSAC and focus on using case studies to assist participants in understanding how the instrument is used for making risk determinations and developing safety plans.
