Ethics and Forensic Practice

The dual role of the forensic practitioner, whether psychiatrist or psychologist, raises a spectrum of ethical issue and has been the subject of debate for decades. The differences in the roles and responsibilities of treating practitioners compared to expert witnesses can be challenging for practitioners to navigate, particularly in complex legal and clinical situations.

The ethical dilemmas for expert witnesses also appear to have increased with the emergence of broad preventative detention regimes, raising the ethically challenging issues involving playing a role in detaining those convicted of serious offences at the end of their sentence, reliance on new and emerging risk assessment tools and the impact of the highly emotive political landscape on impartiality.

Treatment within this context can also raise ethical conflicts, when treatment notes can be subject to orders for production that have less than the usual legal safeguards, and patients are under orders to comply with various treatments (thus bypassing the usual ethical requirement of informed consent). We will discuss the theoretical basis for some of the core ethical principles relevant to these issues in the context of practical clinical scenarios.

Presenters

Kerri Eagle is a Forensic Psychiatrist and Clinical Director for Justice Health Community Forensic Mental Health Service. She is a Conjoint Associate Professor at UNSW. She has dual qualifications in law and medicine.

Kate Harle is a Forensic Psychologist. She is Manager of the Treatment and Rehabilitation Clinic for the JH Community Forensic Mental Health Service. She has extensive experience working with forensic populations and specialises in the assessment and treatment of people with problem sexual behaviours including offending.

Tickets

Attendance is free for ANZAPPL members, and non-members can register for a small fee.

Please click here to register.