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Decision PointsCognitive Skills Training
Decision Points
Authors: Jack Bush Juliana Taymans Charles Robinson Steve Swisher
Key Features
Evidence-based correctional program constructed to address participant risk, needs and responsivity
Targets antisocial thoughts and skill deficits through an interactive behavioral approach
Developed for correctional populations with rapid turnover or short-term populations
Crafted as an open-entry and open-exit program facilitating ease in program management
Key Features
Constructed of 5 comprehensive and repetitive learner-centered lessons for fostering continuous delivery
Built for easy implementation, sustainability and cost containment
Effective as an independent program or delivered in tandem with other behavioral programming
Program integrity managed through program oversight, professional development and coaching
Decision Points Program
Cognitive-behavioral intervention
Teaches 2 concepts and 4 steps to increase participants’ ability to stay out of trouble:
Concept 1 - There are ways to stay out of trouble and still feel okay about yourself
Concept 2 - We all go through cycles of trouble and conflict
What Does it Look Like?
Decision Points is presented in a repeating series of 5 group sessions.
Members can join the group at any time.
Members can remain in the program as long as it is productive for them.
Each group session involves group practice of the content.
Each group session involves giving and reviewing homework.
Cognitive-Behavioral Intervention Offending behavior is shaped and controlled by the ways participants think Behavioral change is best accomplished by changing the ways people think
Thinking is itself a form of behavior, learned by the same mechanisms of reinforcement and extinction as physical behaviors
This means that participants’ ways of thinking can be learned and unlearned
Cognitive skills training teaches participants the thinking skills necessary for successful prosocial living
Cognitive-Behavioral Intervention
Cognitive restructuring aims to change participants’ antisocial attitudes and beliefs
Decision Points combines aspects of cognitive skills training and cognitive restructuring. Decision Points teaches new attitudes and beliefs as a set of thinking skills.
Decision Points is designed for male and female, juvenile and adult offenders violent and nonviolent offenders, low and higher risk offenders (even those who have spent many years incarcerated).
Skills & Steps of Decision Points
Consists of 4 skills
Can be delivered in as short a time as 5 lessons
These skills teach participants to ask and answer 4 questions which mark the 4 steps of Decision Points
Skill Steps(The 4 Questions of Decision Points)
Each step touches on a fundamental aspect of participants’ thinking –
Step 1: What am I thinking and feeling right now, and what are my thoughts and feelings telling me to do?
Step 2: Who else cares what I do right now, and what would they want me to do?
Step 3: What could I do right now; what options would not lead me into trouble; and what options could I feel okay about doing?
Step 4: What’s a thought I could have that would make it easier for me to pick an option that doesn’t lead me into trouble?
The Trouble Cycle
Risk Situation
Thoughts and Feelings
Action
Other’s Responses
Trouble CycleRisk
Situation
Thoughts & Feelings
Action
Others' Response
s
Break the Trouble CycleRisk
Situation
Thoughts & Feelings
Action
Others' Response
s Decision Point
Criminal Thinking
Antisocial thinking is deeply rooted in attitudes of self-justification and disregard for the interests of others
The simple steps of Decision Points have the potential to uncover and influence even these deeply rooted attitudes.
Decision Point Steps
Step 1 (What am I thinking and feeling right now, and what are my thoughts and feelings telling me to do?)
Decision Points teaches participants how to pay attention to the thoughts and feelings going on inside of them.
Step 2 (Who else cares what I do right now, and what would they want me to do?)
We ask participants to think about other people in their lives that may or may not be part of this particular risk situation.
Decision Points Steps
Step 3 (What could I do right now; what options would not lead me into trouble; and what options could I feel okay about doing?)
This set of questions involves: Brainstorming potential actions Evaluating potential actions based on how others might respond Selecting an action that will lead them out of the Trouble Cycle
Step 4 (What’s a thought I could have that would make it easier for me to pick an option that doesn’t lead me into trouble?)
Participants identify ways they can think that make it easier for them not to break rules or hurt people, and still feel good about themselves when they do it.
Decision Points Steps
Steps 3 and 4 have particular significance with higher risk participants. It is not easy to overcome long-standing habits of thinking.
Higher risk participants will likely struggle with thinking of new ways to act, and identifying new ways of thinking that are realistic for them.
Important that facilitators respect this struggle. It is this struggle that higher risk participants deal with in order to change. It’s our role as facilitators to support them in that struggle.
The Strategy of Choices
Coerced change doesn’t change participants’ thinking Triggers resistance Extinguishes cooperation
Compliance is not the change we seek.
Participants control their own attitudes.
Strategy of Choices The Message
You can respect the rules and conditions of participation and take part in the program.
Or, you can reject the rules and conditions and not take part in the program.
That is your choice to make, and we will respect your choice.
But you cannot reject the rules and conditions and still take part in the program.
That is our choice to make, and we will make it.
Rules and Conditions for Participation
Rules kept simple. Require only what is necessary for the group to function and the program to
work.
Essential to the Strategy of Choices The rules and conditions are not arbitrary.
Enforcing them is not a struggle for power between us and them.
Rules and Conditions
The rules and conditions for Decision Points: Respect Participation Honest Effort
Explanation of the rules to participants: Respect is unconditional. That means we are respectful of others whether or not
they are being respectful of us. Participation means taking part in group discussions and doing the assigned
activities. Honest effort means genuine effort. Effort is measured with consideration of
each individual’s ability.
Delivery of Decision Points: an overall strategy of communication
Delivery of Decision Points groups is guided by 3 basic principles of communication: Objectivity
Respect
High Standards of Performance
Objectivity
Facilitators suspend moral judgments about group members’ behaviors and thinking. Such judgments trigger resistance and put “us and them” on opposite
sides.
Decision Points’ Stance: Participants are as they are and they will remain as they are for as long as they are determined to do so.
Respect
Participants base their lives on attitudes, beliefs, and habits of thinking that give meaning to their lives and provide them with a sense of personal identity. There is a problem when their antisocial ways of living and thinking causes
pain to others.
We can exert some control over participants’ behavior through imprisonment and supervision . . . but only they can change their ways of thinking.
Acknowledging participants’ ability and freedom to direct the course of their own lives is a meaningful form of respect.
High Standards of Performance
Maintain respect as a program norm Respect is a basic social value. Maintaining respect as a program rule creates the groundwork for prosocial thinking
beyond the program.
Performance of homework assignments Making a genuine effort in completing the homework is an essential program norm. Setting the standard of completing the homework promotes responsible behavior
beyond the program.
Compliance isn’t forced through punishment Strategy of Choices
Decision Points Skill
Step 1: Connecting thoughts to action
Step 2: Thinking about others
Step 3: Identifying possible actions to take
Step 4: Identifying motivating thoughts to support those actions
What am I thinking and feeling?What are these thoughts and feelings leading me to do?
Who else cares about what I might do?What would they want me to do?
What are my brainstormed choices?Which choices lead away from trouble?Which choices can I feel OK about doing?
What is a thought that can motivate me to do my choice?
The 4 Questions of Decision Points (Steps)
Program Format
Part 1: Individual interview
Part 2: Group session structure
Individual Interview
Purpose: To inform the participant about the program
To determine participant’s ability to understand and participate in the program
To establish a rapport with the participant
To seek commitment from the participant to make an honest effort in the program
Interview Points
1. Describe and explain the basic ideas of the program The Trouble Cycle Decision Points are opportunities to make decisions that steer us away
from trouble We teach decision-making skills in 4 steps and the program consists of
learning how to do them
2. Explain the group activities Every group meeting includes practicing the 4 steps through roleplay and
discussion Everyone will apply the 4 steps in real-life situations (homework)
Points to Cover
3. Explain the basic rules and conditions of participation The rules are unconditional because the are necessary for the group to be
successful To participate To be respectful To make an honest effort
4. Get a commitment from the person to accept and abide by the rules and conditions
Decision Point Lessons
Base Lesson
Step Focused Lessons: (Concentrate on demonstration and practice of steps) Lesson 1: Identify My Thoughts and Feelings
Lesson 2: Thinking About Others Who Care About What I Do
Lesson 3: Thinking About Choices
Lesson 4: Find a Motivating Thought
StructureBase Lesson Purpose & Format
Purpose – Sets the foundation for the Focus Step Lessons 1-4 that follow Presents an overview of and introduction to the program as a whole
The lesson Format Base Lesson: Introduction to the Program and Decision Points Steps
Activity 1:Getting Started Activity 2:Review the Trouble Cycle Activity 3:Practice Reporting Thoughts and Feelings
Lesson Activities
Each of the Step Focused Lessons (4 lessons) in Decision Points is constructed of 6 activities: Activity 1: Introductions/Getting Ready Activity 2: Discuss Trouble Cycle and The 4 Decision Point Steps Activity 3: Demonstration of Focus Step Activity 4: Return Homework Activity 5: In-Group Practice (Roleplay & Discussion) Activity 6: Out-of-Group Practice (Homework)
Activities
Activity 1: Introductions & Getting Started Introductions Collect Homework Review of rules if necessary
Activity 2: Discuss Trouble Cycle and The 4 Decision Point Steps Discuss/review the Trouble Cycle Review Decision Point Steps Identify focus step for the session
Activities
Activity 3: Demonstration of Focus Step Present a hypothetical situation Review previous steps Demonstrate focus step
Activity 4: Return Homework Return homework sheets Provide oral and written feedback
Activities
Activity 5: In-Group Practice Participants present their homework Group members provide input Facilitators coach application
Activity 6: Outside of Group Practice Assignment Participants identify type of practice
Anticipated temptation to break a rule Anticipated risk situation – something happens which causes risk thoughts and
feelings Previous situation when broke a rule or hurt someone
Porter County & Decision Points
PACT Decision Points 3rd Pilot
Training Provided by Jack Bush and Steve Swisher 36 hour training Other Participating Counties: Lake, Starke, Tippecanoe, Elkhart Includes ongoing coaching Provided manual, ppt and able to reproduce materials Future Trainers
Porter County Decision Points
Uses co-facilitators Group size 10-12 Sessions length – 90 minutes Low risk will complete the Base Lesson and 4 Focused Lessons Moderate and higher risk participants will complete:
Base Lesson 4 Focused Lessons Thinking For A Change (men), Moving On or Beyond Violence (women)
Groups are separated based on risk and gender
For More Information
For additional information contact:
Greg Ponchot at strategicgreg@gmail.com
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