Forensic mental health workers, including psychiatrists, psychologists, counselors, and social workers, work with the legal system to assess mental health and provide expert testimony. They may also work with mentally ill suspects, develop treatment strategies, and profile suspects. Training typically involves both mental health and forensic education.
Forensic mental health encompasses a field of workers who work with the legal system as it relates to mental health laws. These practitioners may be psychiatrists, psychologists, licensed counselors, or social workers. Work in this field is diverse and encompasses several areas.
Some forensic mental health professionals, especially psychiatrists, may screen those accused of a crime to determine eligibility to stand trial or the level of criminal liability in individuals with serious mental illness. Often, such psychiatrists can offer expert testimony regarding their views on a suspect. These experts frequently clash with experts from opposing factions, meaning the field is open to interpretation.
In other cases, workers may specifically deal with the treatment of people with mental illnesses involving pedophilia or other disorders. They may work at criminal institutions for the mentally ill and develop strategies to help patients overcome extreme mental illness. Their goal is to reduce criminal recidivism.
Forensic mental health may also allow some therapists to profile suspects. For example, they may write or study teachings about the types of people most likely to be serial killers or commit rapes. In some cases, such profiling will also mean expert testimony, but in many cases the person is simply helping to assist in police investigations into specific types of crimes.
These workers must also be present to work with suspects who appear to be mentally ill and inform them of their rights. They can work with a suspect to let them know how the law affects confidentiality and what rights suspects may have regarding acceptance or refusal of drugs. Forensic mental health workers may also work with families to appoint a person who can make decisions for a mentally ill suspect when that suspect is too ill to make those decisions on their own.
Most forensic mental health experts receive training first in mental health and then further training in forensics. For example, the average psychiatrist first becomes a physician, then a psychiatrist, and finally may spend two or three years training in forensic psychiatry.
Some mental health counselors or professionals receive their training through organizations such as the FBI. This is the case for many professional profilers in the United States. Others attend schools designed to give this specific type of training.
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