The use of psychologically-informed warning letters in probation for high-risk clients with personality difficulties
| Published date | 01 June 2018 |
| DOI | 10.1177/0264550518771169 |
| Date | 01 June 2018 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
Article
The Journal of Community and Criminal Justice
Probation Journal
The use of psychologically-
2018, Vol. 65(2) 170–183
ª The Author(s) 2018
informed warning letters
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DOI: 10.1177/0264550518771169
in probation for high-risk
journals.sagepub.com/home/prb
clients with personality
difficulties
David Harvey
Personality Disorder Services, Leeds, UK
Wendy Sefton
National Probation Service North East Division, Hull, UK
Abstract
Warning letters may be issued to probation service users in the community on licence as
an alternative action to recalling them to prison, when the risk of serious harm can be
managed safely. Template-based, formalized warning letters may inadvertently increase
or compound risk when working with high-risk clients with personality difficulties. As an
alternative, psychologically-informed warning letters can be used. The aim of the letters is
to facilitate joint meaning-making of violations and breaches of licence conditions
between a client and an offender manager, whilst reinforcing boundaries in a thoughtful,
empathic way. Practical guidelines are provided for writing and issuing psychologically-
informed warning letters in probation when working with high-risk clients with personality
difficulties, along with a case study. Finally, possible barriers to using these letters are
identified and potential ways to overcome them are suggested.
Keywords
supervision relationships, effective practice, enforcement, one-to-one case work, per-
sonality disorder
Corresponding Author:
David Harvey, Personality Disorder Services, Unit 24, Sugar Mills Business Park, Oakhurst Avenue, Leeds
LS11 7DF, UK.
Email: davidharvey1@nhs.net
Harvey and Sefton
171
Introduction
The Yorkshire and Humberside Personality Disorder Partnership (YHPDP)
describes the joint initiative between the North East National Probation Service
(NE NPS) and the Leeds and York Partnership NHS Foundation Trust to implement
the Offender Personality Disorder (OPD) strategy. Within this, much of the work in
the community involves psychological practitioners providing consultation to
probation colleagues in developing psychologically-informed risk management
practices with men and women with personality difficulties. This includes consid-
ering how to respond to behaviour which may be indicative of an initial increase
in risk when supervising service users on licence in the community. Probation
practitioners have various options to respond to unacceptable behaviour or an
escalation in risk in these circumstances. These include recall back into custody,
issuing ACO warnings or issuing a warning letter. As a general rule, offender
managers must consider whether to seek recall in cases where the offender’s
behaviour indicates that they present an increased risk of serious harm to the
public or an imminent risk of further offences being committed. There are robust
processes to ensure the test for recall has been met and that alternatives to recall
have been considered. This may include the addition of further licence conditions,
licence warnings, manager’s warning letter, ACO warning letter and now a
psychologically-informed warning letter. Warning letters are also used as an
alternative to breach action, for those serving community sentences. The devel-
opment of the psychologically-informed warning letter has been undertaken in the
OPD partnership in North East NPS balancing the need for the NPS to meet its
statutory obligation to manage and enforce the orders of the Court together with its
primary aims of protecting the public and reducing re-offending, whilst recog-
nizing the psychological needs of the service user. Both are equally important and
co-dependent in managing the risk of serious harm, and it is the promotion of an
either/or approach that undermines quality of services (Barrett, 2011). Of course
there are times when recall is absolutely necessary in order to protect the public
and reduce the risk of re-offending, for example when risk is assessed as imminent,
when the offender has disengaged and their whereabouts is unknown or when risk
factors have become so acute that the risk posed is no longer manageable in the
community. However, in cases where alternatives to recall are being considered,
psychologically-informed warning letters can be helpful, in preventing risk esca-
lation to a point where recall is the only option.
Working with high-risk service users with personality difficulties in probation
presents a range of complex challenges for practitioners. The very nature of
‘personality disorder’ means that relationships are likely to feel disrupted and
distorted, which can challenge our ability to consistently and mindfully stay
attuned to the service user’s underlying needs and risks. Moreover, by holding
in mind a service user’s traumatization and their risk potential, practitioners are
usually aiming to strike a delicate balance between compassion and control.
The aim is to offer an empathic understanding of the service user’s emotional
experience along with very clear limits about what behaviour is not acceptable.
172
Probation Journal 65(2)
Whilst standardized warning letters are a good example of holding clear limits
on what is acceptable behaviour and what is not, psychologically-informed
warning letters may be one way of showing empathic understanding, but
also being explicit and clear about the limits and the consequences of pushing
these limits.
By being reviewed along with the service user, they may also be an
opportunity to co-construct a hypothesis about the reasons for the behaviour and
so invite them to collaborate in the risk assessment process. These letters could
be an opportunity for the offender manager to be experienced as a ‘healthy
parent’ – an individual who can be consistently available for empathic support
and interested in understanding the behaviour attuned to the emotional state of
the service user, but who is also able to be clear about what is acceptable and
what is not with an explicit explanation of what any consequences may be of
breaking the rules.
Repeating relationship patterns from a client’s
personal history
Professionals working with a high-risk client group with personality difficulties are
likely to experience a wide range of intense emotions. These emotions, which may
include anxiety, anger, hopelessness, shame, fear (and in some cases indifference
or detachment), often mirror the emotional turmoil experienced by services users
themselves, who have survived trauma in their early life. As such, it can be helpful,
if not key, for all professionals tasked with managing risk with this client group to
take a reflective approach and specifically consider their own emotional reactions
and responses. Both the service user and the probation practitioner can find
themselves in a confusing, and perhaps overwhelming, emotional and relational
tangle, particularly when the limits of acceptable behaviour are being pushed or
violated by the service user. Under these circumstances, it is understandable that
the ability to think and plan clearly and rationally can be extremely challenging,
meaning that thoughtful and non-reactive responses to breaches or poor beha-
viour can be difficult.
Under these pressured circumstances, the offender manager may feel a pull
to make decisions about the management of the case or interact with the service
user in a way which echoes roles from the service user’s past around control,
neglect, abuse, punishment, reprimand, indulgence or rejection. This repeating
pattern, whereby past trauma leads to emotional intensity and relational
dynamics that mirror the service users’ past, has been referred to as an enact-
ment in the psychoanalytic literature (see Brown and Lane, 2000). If we struggle
to consider these emotional reactions and enactments in a psychological
framework then practitioners may...
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