Shoplifting Offenders Recovery and Treatment (SORT)
A primer to the SORT Treatment program in Singapore
What Is The SORT Program?
The Shoplifting Offenders Recovery and Treatment is a comprehensive treatment program that provides chronic shoplifters training in relapse prevention through methods related to the covert desensitization of impulses, adverse deconditioning of arousal and application of reminder prompts through stimulus conditioning.
There are 3 different phases in this treatment program. The program usually lasts for around 18 months and involves the use of a cognitive-behavioral model.
What Are The Primary Goals of SORT?
The primary goals of the SORT program are:
- Reducing the participant’s re-offense rate
- Guide the participant towards a lifestyle that is prosocial – social behavior that benefits society and people as a whole.
Who Will Benefit From SORT?
SORT is a specialist programme designed to help primarily individuals who are in the process of court hearing for offences related to shoplifting and theft. Kleptomania is a common mental condition that results in an individual having compulsive urges to steal to re-live their anxieties.
SORT also benefits family members of individuals with such problems. The program helps family members how to better support their loved ones through the process of rehabilitation and recovery.
The SORT Program Objectives
- The identification of both cognitive and behavioral patterns that caused the offense and target them for change.
- To tailor an extensive treatment program that addresses the following:
- psychological evaluation
- motivation
- psychosocial education
- offender treatment
- relapse prevention training
- The meticulous monitoring and record-keeping of the individual’s progress throughout the entire program.
- To provide continuous care and support that spans across all the different phases during treatment that continues in the community after the court hearing.
- To minimize the risks and reduce the potential of repeat offenses.
Programme Outline
Phase 1
Intake history and psychosocial assessment/evaluation of cognitive/behavioural patterns that result in the offending behaviour. Preparation of specialist reports for court hearing.
(Likely 2-3 sessions, weekly/biweekly sessions)
Phase 2
Reduction in cognitive/behavioural offence pattern as well as re-conditioning of impulses and urges (12-16 sessions, biweekly/monthly sessions)
Phase 3
Review and consolidation of relapse prevention (3-4 sessions, monthly sessions)
Treatment Provider
Dr Matthew Woo (DClinPsych, Queensland) has had extensive experience with the treatment of shoplifting offenders. In 2010, he was awarded a Health Manpower Development Program fellowship award (under the auspices of the Ministry of Health, Singapore) for Sex Offender Interventions (Portland). While in the employ of the Institute of Mental Health, he has had extensive specialised experience with the treatment of shoplifting offenders, particularly for individuals who were under the Mandatory Treatment Order (MTO) as sentenced by the court.
Let Us Help You
Our clinic has a team of highly specialized and well-known clinicians including a forensic psychiatrist, psychologists and therapists in Singapore who work together to provide holistic care treatments, including depression treatment, hypnotherapy, SORT and EMDR, for various conditions.
If you would like to find out more about Shoplifting Offenders Recovery and Treatment (SORT), contact us by filling in the form below.