RAN HEALTH - Personality disorders and mental illnesses with implications in preventing violent extremism

Background

In many terrorism and extremism cases, personality disorders (PD), mental illnesses (MI) and/or psychological aspects (PA) will not be a relevant consideration. However, PD/MI/PA may be present in some cases and a practitioner will need to consider if and how this may be relevant to risk and vulnerability. Previous research often focused on whether PD/MI/PA is (more) present in radicalised individuals or terrorist offenders. However, in the last few years focus has shifted to understanding how mental health affects the process of radicalisation and/or disengagement, reintegration and rehabilitation. RAN’s Extremism, Radicalisation & Mental Health Handbook describes how characteristics of personality disorders and mental illnesses might relate to terrorist offending or extremist behaviours.

In the prevention and countering of radicalisation (P/CVE) the following questions are relevant to consider:

• Identifying the role PD/MI/PA play in the process of radicalisation. Do some characteristics of PD/MI/PA serve as a protective factor? Or the opposite, by contributing to vulnerabilities to violent extremism? Or do they have no relevance at all?
• Recognising the risk of violence. Is this risk related to radicalisation or merely a manifestation of PD/MI/PA or a combination?
• How to take into account the role of PD/MI during treatment and in P/CVE. How will you provide (mental health) support while taking the risks into consideration?
• PD/MI make it difficult to build bridges and to organise pivotal communal, social or family support. How to organise this as practitioners in a multi-agency setting when discussing specific PD/MI/PA? 

The aim of this meeting is to identify and share new research and practitioner insights on this topic, list and address the challenges relating to specific personality disorders and discuss the practical implications for P/CVE and treatment. The specific mental illness and/or personality disorders to be discussed will depend on the cases practitioners can bring to the meeting.  

Call for participants

We are currently looking for mental health practitioners who have both knowledge and experience of working in a P/CVE setting with people at risk of radicalisation/violent extremism with (diagnosed) personality disorders. Additionally, since professional assessment takes place across various fields of expertise, other relevant practitioners from local authorities, experienced rehabilitation and reintegration practitioners, families, communities and social care workers can also apply to join the meeting.

In order to find the best suited participants and to tailor the meeting content to the practitioners’ needs, we would like you to fill out this survey by May 25.

We will invite participants based on this information. Please keep in mind that we only have a limited number of spots available for this meeting to foster exchanges, so participation is not guaranteed. We will contact you at the end of May.

If you know other suitable participants for whom this meeting is interesting, feel free to forward the call.

If you have any further questions, please don´t hesitate to contact j [dot] krasenbergradaradvies [dot] nl (Jordy Krasenberg) and f [dot] denizradaradvies [dot] nl (Feline Deniz).