Fitness For Duty Evaluation
Assignment 2: RA 1: Fitness-for-Duty Evaluation
In M2 Assignment 1, you proposed a Fitness-for-Duty Evaluation (FFDE) for a police department. In this assignment, you are to create a comprehensive, well-researched FFDE proposal based on the following scenario.
Scenario:
A midwestern state police department recently responded to a barricaded active shooter incident where the shooter had confined himself and his family to their home. The negotiator was able to persuade the shooter to release his four young children but was unable to persuade the shooter to release his wife or surrender. The scenario resulted in the suicide of the active shooter in front of his spouse, who remained unharmed.
You are the mental health consultant for the police department. You have been assigned to conduct an FFDE on the negotiator, a thirty-five-year-old white male. The negotiator is a seven-year veteran of the force who has three small children and is going through a divorce. Although the officer appears to be handling the stress well, a closer examination reveals that the negotiator shows signs of depression and anxiety, which were not present prior to the incident.
Tasks:
Using at least two scholarly resources from the professional literature, investigate methods for developing FFDEs. The literature may include the Argosy University online library resources, relevant textbooks, peer-reviewed journal articles, and websites created by professional organizations, agencies, or institutions (.edu, .org, and .gov).
Create a 6- to 8-page Microsoft Word document by addressing the following:
- Design an appropriate fitness-for-duty assessment for the negotiator, which will be submitted to your client and the police department. The plan should, at a minimum, include the following:
- Paperwork: You should review before you commence your evaluation. Remember that you may want to consider who is making the referral and why.
- Psychometric instruments and a justification for using them.
- Clinical semistructured interview questions that are sensitive to issues of culture and ethics. Consider developing rapport with the officer before you lead into the sensitive questions pertaining to the referral.
- Effects of symptoms of depression and anxiety on an officer’s ability to perform his or her duties.
- Any treatment, if recommended, for symptoms of depression and anxiety in a law enforcement officer.
- Create a clinical fitness-for-duty written evaluation outline. Include aspects of cultural and ethical standards, valid and reliable instruments, and the recommendations of your evaluation, including, but not limited to, treatment recommendations and firearm retention.
- Provide an introduction paragraph to the client and use section headers.
Writing Assignment: Issues in Sexuality: Scholarly vs. Popular Media
Apply APA standards to cite sources.
Submission Details:
- Save your assessment report as M3_A2_Lastname_Firstname.doc. ByWednesday, May 28, 2014, post it to the M3 Assignment 2 RA 1 Dropbox.ADDITIONAL INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE CLASS
Discussion Questions (DQ)
- Initial responses to the DQ should address all components of the questions asked, include a minimum of one scholarly source, and be at least 250 words.
- Successful responses are substantive (i.e., add something new to the discussion, engage others in the discussion, well-developed idea) and include at least one scholarly source.
- One or two sentence responses, simple statements of agreement or “good post,” and responses that are off-topic will not count as substantive. Substantive responses should be at least 150 words.
- I encourage you to incorporate the readings from the week (as applicable) into your responses.
Weekly Participation
- Your initial responses to the mandatory DQ do not count toward participation and are graded separately.
- In addition to the DQ responses, you must post at least one reply to peers (or me) on three separate days, for a total of three replies.
- Participation posts do not require a scholarly source/citation (unless you cite someone else’s work).
- Part of your weekly participation includes viewing the weekly announcement and attesting to watching it in the comments. These announcements are made to ensure you understand everything that is due during the week.
APA Format and Writing Quality
- Familiarize yourself with APA format and practice using it correctly. It is used for most writing assignments for your degree. Visit the Writing Center in the Student Success Center, under the Resources tab in LoudCloud for APA paper templates, citation examples, tips, etc. Points will be deducted for poor use of APA format or absence of APA format (if required).
- Cite all sources of information! When in doubt, cite the source. Paraphrasing also requires a citation.
- I highly recommend using the APA Publication Manual, 6th edition.
Use of Direct Quotes
- I discourage overutilization of direct quotes in DQs and assignments at the Masters’ level and deduct points accordingly.
- As Masters’ level students, it is important that you be able to critically analyze and interpret information from journal articles and other resources. Simply restating someone else’s words does not demonstrate an understanding of the content or critical analysis of the content.
- It is best to paraphrase content and cite your source.
LopesWrite Policy
- For assignments that need to be submitted to LopesWrite, please be sure you have received your report and Similarity Index (SI) percentage BEFORE you do a “final submit” to me.
- Once you have received your report, please review it. This report will show you grammatical, punctuation, and spelling errors that can easily be fixed. Take the extra few minutes to review instead of getting counted off for these mistakes.
- Review your similarities. Did you forget to cite something? Did you not paraphrase well enough? Is your paper made up of someone else’s thoughts more than your own?
- Visit the Writing Center in the Student Success Center, under the Resources tab in LoudCloud for tips on improving your paper and SI score.
Late Policy
- The university’s policy on late assignments is 10% penalty PER DAY LATE. This also applies to late DQ replies.
- Please communicate with me if you anticipate having to submit an assignment late. I am happy to be flexible, with advance notice. We may be able to work out an extension based on extenuating circumstances.
- If you do not communicate with me before submitting an assignment late, the GCU late policy will be in effect.
- I do not accept assignments that are two or more weeks late unless we have worked out an extension.
- As per policy, no assignments are accepted after the last day of class. Any assignment submitted after midnight on the last day of class will not be accepted for grading.
Communication
- Communication is so very important. There are multiple ways to communicate with me:
- Questions to Instructor Forum: This is a great place to ask course content or assignment questions. If you have a question, there is a good chance one of your peers does as well. This is a public forum for the class.
- Individual Forum: This is a private forum to ask me questions or send me messages. This will be checked at least once every 24 hours.