The Role of Frontline Practitioners

Like community members, frontline practitioners also have an important role to play in preventing targeted violence. Frontline practitioners assist communities by working alongside residents to create a collective sense of responsibility for the health and well-being of all persons and intervene when individuals show signs of distress or other behavioral concerns. Frontline practitioners, however, sometimes play a unique role in violence prevention by acting as gatekeepers.  

Gatekeepers 

Gatekeepers are individuals who have contact with and the trust of many individuals in their community, such as teachers, religious leaders, health care workers, and social service providers.  Gatekeepers are positioned to recognize a person who is exhibiting behavioral warning signs of targeted violence and contact law enforcement if there is an imminent threat or refer a person to appropriate services.   

Much about gatekeepers has been learned from the field of suicide prevention. Like bystanders, gatekeepers can also face barriers to intervening. Gatekeeper training in suicide prevention focuses on increasing knowledge, skills and abilities, attitudes, and self-efficacy. In suicide prevention, gatekeepers are taught to follow three steps: (1) Question the individual’s desire or intent regarding suicide, (2) Persuade the person to seek and accept help, and (3) Refer the person to appropriate resources. Gatekeeper training has been shown to be effective in suicide prevention and we believe it will be helpful with targeted violence prevention as well.  

As a frontline practitioner, we want you to think of yourself as a gatekeeper for targeted violence prevention. We want you to be prepared for direct encounters with an at-risk individual. We also want you to be prepared for encounters with an engaged bystander who may share observations with you after hearing, seeing, or learning about concerning behaviors. Our approach is to prepare you for both kinds of encounters so that you can use your relationship to help link others to the services they need. 

Helping Intimate Bystanders 

Parents, siblings, partners, and friends are often the first people to suspect a loved one is on the trajectory towards targeted violence or terrorism. These intimate bystanders are well positioned to facilitate prevention efforts if there are known and trusted reporting pathways to law enforcement or other resources.  

Researchers at UIC and UCLA studied intimate bystanders in the U.S. and built a model called ICARE (Intimate bystander deCision mAking for Reporting targeted violencE) to help illustrate how most intimate bystanders react when they see, hear, or learn about the concerning behaviors of those they care about. The ICARE model shows that much of the intimate bystander’s decision making and possible actions do not involve or depend upon law enforcement. They are often entirely self-directed or involve other community practitioners, many of whom are not trained in responding to targeted violence. 

The ICARE model also identifies the key questions which intimate bystanders face at different stages of the process for which they expressed difficulty finding answers. These activities include the following.  

Conducting Online Research. After learning of the violence risk, intimate bystanders conduct online research.  They seek help on how to talk to someone thinking about mass violence, how to identify risk factors for violence, how to identify local resources such as violence prevention organizations or hotlines, and how to find other information that could help them clarify any uncertainty about the risk or what they should do.  

Conversing with a Family Member or Friend. Intimate bystanders sometimes talk with a family member or friend. They seek guidance and support from someone they trust.  Some intimate bystanders wanted to talk with mutual friends of the person-of-concern, or his family members, to see if these people had also noticed alarming signs in his behavior.  

Talking Directly with the Person-of-Concern. Some intimate bystanders would also talk directly with the person-of-concern. Their aim would be to talk them out of their plan or get them help, such as mental health care. Some intimate bystanders said this would also help to gauge how serious the person was regarding their plan, which would help them decide whether or not law enforcement involvement was necessary.  

Speaking with a Community Practitioner. Many intimate bystanders said they would talk to a community practitioner who may be able to help them weigh the situation, address the risk, and decide whether to contact law enforcement. They did so fearing that going to law enforcement would only increase the likelihood of a violent outcome, specifically of harm to the person-of-concern, and especially if the person-of-concern was a racial or ethnic minority.   

Making a Report to Law Enforcement. Intimate bystanders were ready and willing to make a report with law enforcement, particularly when the threat was perceived to be more serious and imminent, and when they perceived law enforcement to be trustworthy. 

As a frontline practitioner, you are in a position to be someone an intimate bystander reaches out to. This training is intended to prepare you to take on that role. 

It is important to recognize that frontline practitioners may also experience some of the same barriers to intervention as engaged bystanders, including lack of perceived responsibility, fear of being judged, lack of confidence, fear of overstepping, and concerns about personal safety. This training was developed to help you recognize and overcome these barriers.   

What Gatekeepers Don’t Do

It’s important to understand what types of things you should and should not do as a gatekeeper.   

Gatekeepers DO NOT:   

• Label individuals.  
• Use someone’s appearance, religion, or other characteristics as reason for concern.  
• Evaluate or diagnose someone.  
• Suggest or provide treatment.  
• Monitor or investigate individuals.  

Instead, gatekeepers:  

• Help support a healthy community.  
• Offer genuine concern and support.  
• Engage in conversations with others.  
• Safely help someone they are concerned about.   
• Notice situations in which concerning behaviors are present.  
• Know some of the resources in their community and how to access them.  
• Will talk to trusted adults about their concerns. 

Some frontline practitioners may work for employers that already have existing policies and procedures related to how to respond should they hear, see, or learn about concerning behaviors. You should become familiar with those policies if they exist.