Who is This Training Opportunity For?

This course is designed for practitioners who already have training and experience in assessing personality disorder using a semi-structured clinical interview. Delegates will be asked at registration to confirm which personality disorder assessment interview(s) they are trained to use (e.g. IPDE, SCID-II or SCID-5-PD) and approximately when they completed this training. The course builds on existing interview skills and assumes a working familiarity with semi-structured assessment methods.

Please note: Practitioners who have not previously trained in a semi-structured clinical interview for the assessment of personality disorder are advised to consider the three-day course taking place in May. This course is not suitable for clinicians who are inexperienced in personality disorder assessment using semi-structured clinical interviews.

The Alternative Model for Personality Disorder (AMPD) was first published in section III of DSM-5 (2013) and has been subject to much research in the years since. The Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-5 AMPD (SCID-5-AMPD) Modules I to III operationalise the evaluation of the alternative model through three semi-structured clinical interviews. Module I is the Level of Personality Functioning Scale (LPFS), a semi-structured clinical interview for assessing the severity of personality problems across the core realms of self and interpersonal functioning. The LPFS is closely aligned to the severity indicators described in the revised personality disorder criteria published in the WHO’s 11th edition of the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-11). Module II is a semi-structured clinical interview for assessing problematic personality traits (negative affectivity, detachment, psychoticism, antagonism and disinhibition). Module III is a semi-structured clinical interview for the assessment of each of the six personality disorders in the AMPD: antisocial, narcissistic, borderline, avoidant, obsessive-compulsive and schizotypal. In a clinical assessment, modules may be administered as stand-alone assessments, or all three modules may be administered together and in order, I through III, as determined by the nature of the evaluation required.

This intensive 2-day online training course will examine the background to personality disorder assessment and the AMPD, its evidence base and the parallels with the assessment of personality problems using the ICD-11 and semi-structured clinical interviews such as the IPDE and SCID-5-PD. It will then examine in detail each of the three SCID-5-AMPD modules, how they are structured and implemented in practice, and how assessment findings are determined. The course will also examine how those findings are prepared in written communications with others, including the Courts, either as standalone assessment findings about the nature and degree of personality problems or as part of a broader assessment of risk.

This course is suitable for qualified practitioners with experience of assessing people with personality problems using semi-structured clinical interviews who wish to develop their current practice to take account of developments in the AMPD and ICD-11 personality disorder personality disorder diagnostic framework. This course will be relevant to practitioners working in forensic and criminal justice settings with clients at risk of harm to others or themselves.

Intended audience

Qualified psychological practitioners (mainly clinical and forensic psychologists) and psychiatrists. Trainees may attend, but their practice using the SCID-5-AMPD module interviews must be supervised by an experienced and SCID-5-AMPD-trained practitioner.

Learning objectives

1. To inform attendees about the DSM-5 and ICD-11 organisation of personality problems, and their operationalisation in the form of semi-structured clinical interviews
2. To introduce attendees to the SCID-5-AMPD and provide them with experience in the use of Modules I to III
3. To guide attendees in their use of clinical interviewing skills when using Modules I to III, as well as in their communication of the observations made
4. Specifically, to discuss how the links between personality problems and risk can be explored in assessment and described in report form

Post-training, to provide online supervision for attendees during their first applications of the Modules