Every new year brings the opportunity to refresh. From a Behavioral Threat Assessment and Management (BTAM) perspective, 2023 brings a fresh opportunity to look ahead at how Threat Management Teams (TMT) can continue to keep those in organizations and communities safe. A large part of BTAM is the ongoing programmatic development and upkeep over the—the Threat Management program. Threat Assessment is the process to identify the potential dangerousness of threats and threatening behavior, while Threat Management is the program that seeks to employ intervention strategies to ensure these issues don’t get lost over time—because behavioral issues rarely go away on their own. To that end, here are three things TMTs can do in 2023 to build upon 2022.

As we empower individuals to build a strategy that protects their safety and security, it becomes apparent that it's one thing to tell them what it means to be proactive, use empathy and de-escalate, but understanding how to apply the tools and techniques is another. The true challenge lies in empowering an individual to become critical stakeholders in a safe work environment, one that's free from intimidation and violence. Without the benefits of training, one could easily find themselves immersed in a situation that seems unmanageable and out of control, which is the exact thing we are trying to prevent in the first place.