FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS


NACTATR was established in 1999 by Kevin Cameron as a reaction to the Columbine High School shooting in Littleton CO, US, which led to a Canadian student entering a Canadian school and firing at students. Kevin led the school-based crisis team in Canada, and following this incident formed NACTATR.

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NACTATR focuses on preventing violence in combination with situation-specific trauma response by working with people and technology to create more coordinated and prepared communities.

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Understanding people in a humanistic way is the most effective way to prevent the occurrence of violence. In the aftermath of a traumatic event, a people-focused approach is a proven way to break the trauma-violence cycle.

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Yes. Training the existing stakeholders within a community in a cooperative way is the best approach to ensure that there can be a coordinated reaction to threat assessment and trauma response.

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Yes, NACTATR provides resources for the wider community to the multistakeholder teams, who are trained to provide thorough community updates.

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Worrisome behaviors, in many cases, are precursors to someone committing acts of violence to themselves or others. This causes both trauma in the community and can increase the justification for reciprocal violence and increase weapons possession as a response to fear.

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Trauma is a deeply disturbing event in one’s life that impairs overall functioning. Trauma can be caused by an event or experience, or be intensified by the worry of something bad that might happen.

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These are the teams who get trained in VTRA and/or TES. Teams are usually comprised of key members of the community including school administration, principals, teachers, police, social services and local mental health professionals.

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Yes, violence potential can be assessed and prevented, and suicidal ideation can be assessed and prevented. There are almost always per-incident signs and indicators that training identifies for proper intervention.

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Yes, VTRA and TES help professionals, parents and community members use processes and protocols to identify worrisome behaviors in relation to bullying. If bullying is identified, established interventions and resources can be used to address behaviors before they become incidents.

VTRA and TES

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The primary purpose of threat assessment is for school administrators, counsellors, HR administrators, police officers, and other related partners (community mental health, social services, probation, etc.) to be able to determine if a threat maker actually poses a risk to a target or targets they have threatened.

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One of the natural directions in the growth of the VTRA model and its implementation and use has been the development of Community Protocols across the country between schools and other community partners such as mental health, various police services, children’s aide societies, probation, hospitals, etc. These Protocols promote a common language and understanding of the VTRA model, make use of a broad range of expertise, and solidify the importance of the multidisciplinary approach that has proved to be so beneficial. Protocols foster timely collaboration and sharing of information about children/youth who pose a risk for violence towards themselves or others while respecting an individual’s right to privacy to the fullest extent possible. These protocols also promote supportive interventions and preventative plans being put into place.

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VTRA stands for "Violence Threat Risk Assessment"
The primary purpose of the VTRA training is to teach school administrators, counsellors, HR administrators, police officers, and other related partners (community mental health, social services, probation, etc.) the multidisciplinary process of determining if a threat maker actually poses a risk to a target or targets they have threatened.

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TES stands for "Traumatic Event Systems"
TES is comprised of four phases, including a Student System, a Comprehensive Strategic Assessment, a Community Intervention, and a Traumatic Aftermath

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NACTATR stands for "North American Center for Threat Assessment and Trauma Response" NACTATR provides training for schools, government agencies, corporations, and other organizations in recognizing and anticipating violent threats, and in dealing with the aftermath of traumatic events.

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TACTIC stands for "Threat Assessment, Crisis & Trauma Intervention Collaboration" TACTIC is a human-assisted technology tool that digitizes VTRA and TES incidents. This allows real-time information sharing and data assessment to facilitate rapid intervention and a coordinated, comprehensive action plan.