Mental health professionals have much to contribute to court-related decisions. Forensic work is interesting and rewarding, but it can also be challenging and stressful, even for experienced clinicians. "Forensic Practice for the Mental Health Clinician: Getting Started, Gaining Experience, and Avoiding Pitfalls" walks you through the steps required to navigate most aspects of forensic practice. Each chapter focuses on a different type of assessment and role, including pertinent background, case references, and elements that need to be addressed. Filled with practical information (and checklist summaries) to help keep you on track, Shapiro and Walker's book provides the necessary tools to prepare you for the work ahead.

Developing a forensic practice can be confusing and intimidating. Dr. William Reid, a highly experienced forensic psychiatrist, has written a practical, straightforward guide for clinicians interested in doing it right and increasing their opportunities for a successful transition to forensic work. This book, which will be of interest to many attorneys as well, provides straightforward details, along with many case examples, of lawyer-expert communications and relationships, case assessment, record review, evaluations, reports, deposition and trial testimony, fees and billing, office operations, marketing, liability, and professional ethics. A bonus chapter by a successful malpractice attorney gives a unique and valuable "lawyer’s perspective" on the content and mental health experts in general. The huge appendix provides over 40 highly useful examples of common office forms, letters, reports, and affidavits. Any mental health professional who currently practices, or wants to practice, at the interface of mental health and the law will find this an indispensible practice resource.

Forensic Mental Health Counseling offers a comprehensive understanding of how and why mentally ill clients intersect with the legal system, as victims and offenders. It provides a thorough explanation of how traumatic neurodevelopment, including adverse childhood experiences, result in sometimes maladaptive coping behaviors, discusses diagnostic assessments, and provides research-informed prevention and intervention examples counselors can use in practice. The text pays special interest to socio-political trends related to socio-economic status, gender, race/ethnicity, age, LGBTQI+ and disability, including attending to institutionalized bias. The intergenerational impact of cycles of victimization and offending are further illustrated through case examples. The first section introduces normal and traumatic neuro-development; discusses the unique ethical and legal issues counselors experience in forensic settings; discusses self-care to decrease vicarious trauma, compassion fatigue, and burnout; and provides detailed instruction on completing biopsychosocial assessments, assessing stages of change utilizing motivational interviewing techniques, and completing a MSE. The second section discusses developmental aspects of forensics including child abuse/neglect, juvenile offending, and adult offending. The third section provides specific chapters on working with addicted offenders, IPV victims and offenders, sexual assault victims, and sex offenders. For a look at the specific features and benefits of Forensic Mental Health Counseling, visit cognella.com/forensic-mental-health-counseling-features-and-benefits.

When care of younger patients raises thorny legal questions, you need answers you can trust: that's why this book belongs on every clinician's reference shelf. Principles and Practice of Child and Adolescent Forensic Mental Health is a timely and authoritative source that covers issues ranging from child custody to litigation concerns as it walks clinicians through the often-confusing field of depositions and courtroom testimony. The book expands on the 2002 volume Principles and Practice of Child and Adolescent Forensic Psychiatry winner of the 2003 Manfred S. Guttmacher Award, to meet pressing twenty-first-century concerns, from telepsychiatry to the Internet, while continuing to cover basic issues, such as forensic evaluation, psychological screening, and the interviewing of children for suspected sexual abuse, that are important to both new and experienced practitioners. Many of its chapters have been entirely rewritten by new authors to provide fresh insight into such topics as child custody; juvenile law; abuse, neglect, and permanent wardship cases; transcultural, transracial, and gay/lesbian parenting and adoption; and the reliability and suggestibility of children's statements. It also includes significant material not found in the previous volume: Two chapters on special education offer an introduction to screening instruments and help practitioners determine a child's potential need for special education programs and services. A chapter on cultural competence helps readers improve the accuracy and responsiveness of forensic evaluations and minimize the chance of an unjust outcome resulting from misguided expert opinion. The section on youth violence features three new chapters -- Taxonomy and Neurobiology of Aggression, Prevention of School Violence, and Juvenile Stalkers -- plus a newly written chapter on assessment of violence risk, offering guidance on how to confront problems such as bullying and initiate effective family interventions. A chapter on psychiatric malpractice and professional liability addresses these legal concerns with an eye toward cases involving minors. A chapter on psychological autopsy covers evaluation of the circumstances surrounding pediatric suicides, describing various types of equivocal deaths and discussing legal issues such as admissibility of the autopsy in court. A newly written chapter on the Internet expands the previous book's focus on child pornography to help practitioners deal with issues ranging from online threats to emotional and legal consequences of interactions in cyberspace. This is a valuable reference not only for practitioners in psychiatry and the mental health field but also for attorneys and judges. It opens up a field that may be too often avoided and helps professionals make their way through legal thickets with confidence.

Forensic mental health assessment (FMHA) has grown into a specialization informed by research and professional guidelines. This series presents up-to-date information on the most important and frequently conducted forms of FMHA. The 19 topical volumes address best approaches to practice for particular types of evaluation in the criminal, civil, and juvenile/family areas. Each volume contains a thorough discussion of the relevant legal and psychological concepts, followed by a step-by-step description of the assessment process from preparing for the evaluation to writing the report and testifying in court. Volumes include the following helpful features: - Boxes that zero in on important information for use in evaluations - Tips for best practice and cautions against common pitfalls - Highlighting of relevant case law and statutes - Separate list of assessment tools for easy reference - Helpful glossary of key terms for the particular topic. In making recommendations for best practice, authors consider empirical support, legal relevance, and consistency with ethical and professional standards. These volumes offer invaluable guidance for anyone involved in conducting or using forensic evaluations. This first volume in the series serves an introduction to the field of FMHA, and provides an overview of the foundational concepts applied in the other 19 volumes.

Stay up-to-date on the ethical and legal issues that affect your clinical and professional decisions! Ethical and Legal Issues for Mental Health Professionals: A Comprehensive Handbook of Principles and Standards details the ethical and legal issues that involve mental health professionals. Respected authorities with diverse backgrounds, expertise, and professional experience discuss contemporary theories emphasizing professional ethics, the ramifications of professional actions and decisions, and ethical standards on teaching, training, research, and publication. This informative handbook provides invaluable up-to-date information and guidelines vital for every mental health professional. This book is a thorough examination of ethical behavior which can be used as a reference source for the professional or a textbook for graduate students. The handbook itself is divided into five sections. The first section is a detailed introduction of ethics, law, and licensing. The second section presents general ethical principles like competence, integrity, and respect for individual rights and dignity. The third section examines confidentiality, privilege, consent, and protection. The fourth section focuses on general ethical standards in practice, including sexual contact, multiple relationships, and bartering. The fifth section presents the ethical principles and standards in teaching, training, and research. Appendices include the Ethical Principles of Psychologists and Code of Conduct (American Psychological Association, 2002) and the Code of Ethics of the National Association of Social Workers (National Association of Social Workers, 1999). Ethical and Legal Issues for Mental Health Professionals: A Comprehensive Handbook of Principles and Standards discusses: the history of basic approaches and issues in ethical philosophy five fundamental areas in the process of developing competence the necessary ingredients for the mental health professional’s practice of integrity aspirational versus enforceable standards of ethics concern for the welfare of others as a core ethical principle the notion of social responsibility in the ethics codes of psychologists and social workers ethical principles, statutes, and case law protecting privacy and confidentiality issues involving the therapist-patient privilege the “duty to protect” doctrine and relevant legal issues the dynamics of multiple relationships and boundary violations sexualized dual relationships between psychologists and patients possible conflict of interest in bartering for services the requirements and implementation of maintaining patient records to avoid ethical and legal problems possible ethical dilemmas involving referrals and fees much, much more This Handbook is an essential resource for all mental health professionals, including psychologists, psychiatrists, social workers, counselors, therapists, and graduate students in mental health and the related fields. Ethical and Legal Issues for Mental Health Professionals: A Comprehensive Handbook of Principles and Standards is the first of three volumes under this title. The following volumes will focus on forensic settings and special populations/special treatment modalities.

People who use forensic mental health services are defined by the fact that they have violated boundaries, often in many ways. For clinicians employed to work therapeutically with this client group however, the capacity to initiate and maintain boundaries is critical to safety as well as to good treatment outcomes. This book provides a thorough introduction to the subject of professional and therapeutic boundaries and their particular complexities within forensic mental health settings. The contributors, all experts in their respective fields, address the challenges of establishing working boundaries within forensic mental health services from multiple perspectives. They explore the ways in which boundaries can be initiated and maintained in different areas of forensic mental health work, including in psychotherapy, mental health nursing, arts therapies, forensic psychiatry and family therapy, and when working with different client groups, including children and adolescents, offenders with severe personality disorders in high security settings and sex offenders. Consideration is also given to boundaries and homicide, maternal boundary violations and boundaries in a forensic learning disability service. This authoritative, interdisciplinary resource will support all forensic mental health practitioners in this crucial aspect of their work.