Law and Culture are facts of life in the daily lives of the First Peoples of Western Australia. This presentation will describe an approach to understanding family violence (FV) through a Law and Culture lens, including the key drivers of FV in the context of colonial patriarchal violence, ongoing colonialism and intergenerational trauma, and the implications for working effectively with First Peoples who experience FV and those who use violence in their interpersonal relationships. Dr Victoria Hovane (PhD) is an Aboriginal woman from Broome in the Kimberley region of WA. She belongs to the Ngarluma people of Roebourne in the Pilbara, and the Jaru and Gooniyandi peoples of the East and Central Kimberley regions. Vickie is a registered psychologist and an experienced consultant and practitioner having worked in various legal, social welfare, justice, and research roles over the past 37 years. She is a Professorial Fellow at the Australian Centre for Child Protection at the University of South Australia and an Adjunct Professor at the Centre for Indigenous Peoples and Community Justice, Law School at the University of Western Australia. She specialises in the areas of addressing the cultural needs of Aboriginal people in various settings including the child protection, legal, courts and correctional systems, with a particular emphasis on understanding intergenerational trauma including family violence and sexual assault, and its multiple impacts in Aboriginal communities. Vickie was previously appointed to the roles of Professor and Study Director in the national Family and Community Safety for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples (FaCtS) Study at The ANU. She was also recently the senior research consultant in an ANROWS project which investigated: The role of Law and Culture in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities in responding to and preventing family violence; and Researcher in the ANROWS project Innovative models in addressing violence against Indigenous women. Vickie spent six years as an Independent Director on the Board of Australia’s National Research Organisation on Women’s Safety (ANROWS). She is currently the Chair of the Board of the Aboriginal Family Law Service, Board member of the Centre for Women’s Safety and Wellbeing, a Member of the WA Minister for FV, Women and Communities’ Aboriginal Advisory Panel, and a Member of the High Risk Offenders Board. She was previously a long serving Member of the National Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Mental Health & Suicide Prevention Advisory Group, a Member of the Commonwealth Department of Health’s Adult Mental Health Centres Technical Advisory Group, a member of the Advisory Group for the Australian Primary Prevention of Sexual Violence project, a long serving Member of the Advisory Panel to the WA Ombudsman’s FDV and Child Fatality Review Committees, and a Member of the WA Mental Health Commission. Registration for this seminar is essential. Please click here for tickets.

Extremist ideologies flourish in situations where there is mounting distrust between a government and its population. This has been compounded in the current pandemic by disinformation and greater access and vulnerability to fringe messaging. The pandemic has seen an increase in reported incidents involving Sovereign Citizens, who have a complex anti-government ideology. This presentation will highlight possible reasons for the increased use of Sovereign strategies in these unsettled times. It will provide an historical overview of the Sovereign Citizen Movement and its various idiosyncrasies. The webinar will consider the risks posed by Sovereign Citizens in Australia and the importance of recognising their language and behaviour. The presentation will emphasise the relevance of these individuals to mental health professionals, lawyers and police, and consider management approaches. About the Presenter: Until her retirement from clinical work in December 2020 Michele Pathé was the Professor of Forensic Psychiatry at Swinburne University of Technology and a Consultant Psychiatrist at the Victorian Institute of Forensic Mental Health (‘Forensicare’). She was the Clinical Lead at the Victorian Fixated Threat Assessment Centre (VFTAC), a joint police-mental health unit in the Counter Terrorism Command of Victoria Police. She is currently Adjunct Professor of Forensic Psychiatry at Swinburne and provides consultation and training to police, health and intelligence agencies in Australia and New Zealand. Dr Pathé has a longstanding clinical and research interest in stalking, pathological grievances and lone actor extremism. She has authored three books and over 100 journal articles and book chapters on these subjects. She is a co-author of the validated stalking risk assessment tool, the Stalking Risk Profile. She was an inaugural member of ANZAPPL and has received several national and international awards for her work, including in 2018 the Distinguished Achievement Award from the American chapter of the Association of Threat Assessment Professionals. Click here to register.

The Annual General Meeting of ANZAPPL New South Wales will take place at 6pm (AEDT) on Wednesday 3 March 2021, via Zoom. All active members of ANZAPPL New South Wales are encouraged to attend. Please click here to access an agenda for this meeting and forms. This meeting will be immediately followed by a lecture delivered by Professor Michele Pathé, titled Sovereign citizens: extremist ideologies in a pandemic. Registration for the Annual General Meeting includes registration for the lecture.

Three authorities from the fields of psychiatry, psychology and law will outline the implications for practice of a recent landmark case. Seminar recording Members can access a recording of this seminar through the Members' Section.   Presentations Marsh T. 2021. Brown v The Queen: Personality disorders, evidence-based sentencing and individualised justice. Carroll A. 2021. Personality disorder in presentence reports: a 3D approach. Ogloff J. 2021. The relationship between personality disorder and offending: implications for appropriate intervention.   Seminar abstract THE EMERGENCE OF PERSONALITY DISORDER IN SENTENCING LAW: IMPLICATIONS FOR LAW AND CLINICAL SERVICES Across jurisdictions laws, criminal justice systems, mental health services and clinicians have struggled for over a century to find ways of addressing the vexing issue of the offender with personality disorder. A central issue is if and how personality disorder should be taken into account in sentencing. The role of forensic mental health evidence in assisting Courts with sentencing in the context of impaired mental functioning is well established. The Tsiaras and Verdins rulings in Victoria outlined sophisticated and flexible frameworks for such evidence. In 2015 however, the Appeal Court in O’Neill ruled that personality disorders did not constitute an ‘impairment of mental functioning’. This ruling was overturned in 2020 by the Appeal Court in Brown v The Queen. Our three speakers played key roles in this case and are authorities in their respective disciplines. Case details: http://www.austlii.edu.au/cgi-bin/viewdoc/au/cases/vic/VCC/2020/196.html Tim Marsh 'Personality disorder, evidence based sentencing and individualised justice' Tim Marsh is a barrister who has practiced exclusively in crime for 20 years, and has appeared in hundreds of cases at first instance and on appeal representing clients with serious mental illnesses, cognitive impairments and personality disorders. For nine years he held the position of Chief Counsel at Victoria Legal Aid and worked as a sessional member of the Mental Health Tribunal for five years. He was lead counsel in the landmark case of Brown v The Queen, which radically reshaped how the law deals with personality disordered offenders. Andrew Carroll ‘Personalising the offender: Implications of Brown v The Queen’ Andrew Carroll is a forensic psychiatrist who has worked in public mental health for over 25 years in both Australia and the UK. He is now Co-Director of the mental health training and consultancy company, Our Curious Minds Pty Ltd. He is also the visiting psychiatrist to Hopkins Correctional Centre, a large men’s prison in Victoria. He has a busy private medicolegal practice. He has published extensively in the field of risk assessment, forensic mental health service provision, clinical decision-making and violence. He is an Associate Professor (Adjunct) at the Centre for Forensic Behavioural Science at Swinburne University of Technology. In this presentation, he will argue that Brown encourages the Courts (and hence experts) to grapple with varying severities of personality dysfunction and the myriad possible factors underlying such dysfunction. He will outline a pragmatic approach to the forensic task of providing expert evidence regarding personality disorder to assist the Courts with sentencing. James Ogloff ‘The relationship between personality disorder and offending: Implications for interventions’ Trained as a lawyer and psychologist, James Ogloff AM is the University Distinguished Professor and Director of the Centre for Forensic Behavioural Science at Swinburne University and Executive Director of Psychological Services and Research at Forensicare. He has published 18 books and more than 300 articles and chapters in forensic psychology and forensic mental health. He has held many editorial and professional leadership roles and has received numerous awards for his work. He has thought about people with dysfunctional personalities in the criminal justice system for 37 years! A brief overview of the relationship between personality disorder and offending will be provided. Attention will be paid to the ways in which personality characteristics contribute to offending. Finally, the implications of Brown for appropriate interventions will be highlighted. Please click here to register.

Seminar recording Members can access a recording of this seminar through the Members' Section.   Supplementary materials Devilly G. J. & Annab R. 2008. A randomised controlled trial of group debriefing. Journal of Behavior Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry. 39: 42-56. Devilly G. J., Varker T., Hansen K. & Gist R. 2007. An analogue study of the effects of psychological debriefing on eyewitness memory. Behavior Research and Therapy. 45: 1245-1254. Devilly G. J. & Varker T. 2008. The effect of stressor severity on outcome following group debriefing. Behaviour research and therapy. 46: 130-136. Robert N. P., Kitchiner N. J., Kenardy J., Robertson L., Lewis C. & Bisson J. I. 2019. Multiple session early psychological interventions for the prevention of post-traumatic stress disorder. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews. 8. McCart M. R., Chapman J. E., Zajac K. & Rheingold A. A. 2020. Community-based randomized controlled trial of psychological first aid with crime victims. Journal of consulting and clinical psychology. 88(8): 681-695. Devilly G. J. & Varker T. 2013. The prevention of trauma reactions in police officers: decreasing reliance on drugs and alcohol. Canberra: National Drug Law Enforcement Research Fund.   Presentation abstract Psychiatrists, Psychologists and Lawyers are having to be exposed to increasingly vivid traumatic materials. These include police body camera footage, indecent images of children, graphic photographs of trauma, and audio and video recordings of crime. This is in addition to the everyday demands to which psychiatrists, psychologists and lawyers are exposed. In this presentation Professor Grant Devilly will outline practical steps that people can take to reduce the psychological impact. Specifically, he will cover the basics of good psychological health, responses to stress reactions, and preventing long lasting reactions to specific events. Grant is a Professor at Griffith University. He has worked predominantly with neuroses at the Institute of Psychiatry (England), as a senior psychologist in psychiatric hospitals, and is a practicing clinician. He has been invited to present both nationally and internationally on the topics of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), alcohol use, violent and sexual offending, violent videogame use and is a recognised expert on psychological aspects of intervening with victims of crime. He has acted as an advisor to the Victorian Department of Justice and advised the Victorian Parliamentary Review into victim services and another enquiry into ‘Recovered Memory Therapy’. He was also an advisor to the Federal Attorney General to change legislation into the effects of violent videogames. He has been invited to present both nationally and internationally on the topic of PTSD, preventing PTSD and on psychological aspects of intervening with victims of crime, disaster and war. He was on the scientific working party which developed the Australian Guidelines for the Treatment of Acute Stress Disorder and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and also the guidelines specifically aimed at emergency services personnel. In his capacity as a researcher and clinical psychologist he is frequently used as an expert witness in court cases involving PTSD in the workplace.

ANZAPPL SA members are invited to this important full-day seminar, to be followed by the Annual General Meeting. This event had to be rescheduled due to COVID-19 restrictions. For information on how to register for this event, please view this flyer. Program Opening address Chief Justice Chris Kourakis Doli Incapax: Disability and Developmental considerations from a Youth Justice Perspective Louisa Hackett, Principal Psychologist  DHS Youth Justice     The Mental Health Act and the Assessment of Competence Dr John Brayley, Chief Psychiatrist Topic to be announced Martin Hinton QC, Director of Public Prosecutions The law reform reference on witness competence Hon Geoff Muecke, Dr David Plater  and Olga Pandos           Briefing an expert Judge Liesl Chapman The structure of reports Dr William Brereton Panel discussion, topic to be announced Barry Jennings QC

With several Australian states considering whether to criminalise coercive control, the need to understand this complex and insidious phenomenon is more pressing than ever. In this lecture, author and journalist Jess Hill will anatomise coercive control, and confront one of the most confounding questions of our time: why do men do this? Jess Hill is an investigative journalist and author of See What You Made Me Do, which won the 2020 Stella Prize, the Booksellers Choice Award, and is a finalist in the Prime Minister’s Literary Awards. Her book is being adapted into a 3-part series for SBS in 2021. This event will be preceded by the Annual General Meeting of ANZAPPL Victoria. Click here for more information. This event will take place on Zoom and all are welcome to attend. Registration is free and essential. Click here to register.

The Annual General Meeting of ANZAPPL Victoria will take place at 6pm (AEDT) on Tuesday 8 December 2020, via Zoom. All active members of ANZAPPL Victoria are welcome to attend. Click here to access an agenda, minutes and forms for this meeting. This meeting will be immediately followed by a lecture delivered by Jess Hill, titled 'Why does he do it? Understanding coercive control'. Click here for more information.

Join us in enjoying the relaxed ambience, excellent company, and stunning views at Tiki AF, Perth's newest 60s inspired cocktail bar. Make the most of the final chance to mingle with hte committee and those people that you see at our seminars but never have a chance to talk with, as we prepare to farewell 2020. An extensive range of fabulous cocktails, tasty beverages, and delicious food is available for purchase at the venue at your own expense. Make the most of happy hour! Please advise us if you are attending prior to the RSVP date of Wednesday 2nd December 2020 to assist in meeting the requirements of the ongoing COVID-19 restrictions. RSVP by Wednesday 2 December. Please click here to register.

The 40th Annual General Meeting of the Association will take place at 6pm (AEDT) on Tuesday 24 November 2020, via Zoom. All active members of the Association are welcome to attend, but it is essential that you register your attendance in advance. Active members of the Association can access the agenda and relevant forms here. Nomination and proxy voting forms must be returned to the Secretary by 6pm (AEDT) on Monday 23 November 2020. Please email forms to secretary@anzappl.org. Members who attend the AGM will also gain access to a special lecture delivered by Dr Eilionóir Flynn, Established Professor at the School of Law and Director of the Centre for Disability Law and Policy (CDLP), National University of Ireland Galway. Disentangling capacity assessments from discovery of will and preferences – the radical promise of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities This lecture will address three major challenges that arise from different interpretations of Article 12 of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. The first, is the issue of direct and indirect discrimination in functional assessments of mental capacity which are used to determine an individual’s legal capacity, for example, in respect of consent to treatment. The second is the dilemma of advance decisions and how these can be framed differently without using functional assessments of mental capacity as the trigger for when an advance decision should enter into force. The final issue is the need for a human rights compliant response in a situation where the individual's preference(s) appears to conflict with his/her will. Dr Eilionóir Flynn is an Established Professor at the School of Law and Director of the Centre for Disability Law and Policy (CDLP), National University of Ireland Galway. She is a graduate of University College Cork (BCL, PhD), and received a scholarship from the Irish Research Council for Humanities and Social Sciences for her PhD research on advocacy for persons with disabilities in Ireland and Australia. In her current role, Eilionóir represents the CDLP on a number of EU-funded research projects in the fields of access to justice, EU implementation of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, active citizenship and disability (DISCIT), and legal capacity reform (PERSON).

Australia has the highest rate of amphetamine dependence in the world, and of all the world’s regions, Australasia has, by a substantial margin, the highest rate of all-cause deaths associated with amphetamine dependence. Methamphetamine in its crystal form is particularly addictive and can quickly ruin the health and derail the lives of users and pose enormous challenges for their families and friends. In NSW, a staggering figure of around 8,000 persons with a current crystal methamphetamine addiction are received into the state’s gaols every year and require detoxing. But are we doing enough to help addicts get back on track? Should simple use and possession remain criminalised? Another drug in the amphetamine family is MDMA (‘ecstasy’) which, whilst less addictive, can have harmful side effects and can be especially dangerous to naïve users. MDMA has been linked to numerous deaths of young adults attending music festivals. There have been strong calls for the introduction of ‘pill testing’ facilities and an equally strong resistance by the NSW government to this. The ‘Ice Inquiry’ heard a vast amount of evidence and did a ‘deep dive’ into the many problems arising from amphetamine use, and its report released in February 2020 made 109 recommendations for addressing them. Before Covid-19 struck, the NSW government indicated that it would make a detailed response to the report by the end of the year. Nothing has yet been forthcoming, and in the meantime the pandemic has heightened the ‘drivers’ of drug use such that the problems identified in the report will only continue to worsen unless profound changes are made. About the Presenter Professor Dan Howard SC was the Commissioner of the Special Commission of inquiry into the Drug ‘Ice’, and delivered his final Report to the Governor and Premier of NSW on 28 January, 2020. A former President of the NSW Mental Health Review Tribunal and a former Acting Judge of the District Court of NSW, Dan is a Visiting Professorial Fellow with the School of Law at the University of Wollongong, and has for many years taught ‘Psychiatry and the Criminal Law’ in the Masters of Forensic Mental Health Program at UNSW.  Tickets Registration for this webinar is free for all current ANZAPPL members, $10 for students and $20 for non-members. Click here to purchase tickets. Please note that this webinar will not be recorded. There will be an opportunity for discussion and questions at the end of the presentation.

The new Family Violence Act has changed much about prosecuting family violence. It will introduce two new criminal offences - Suffocation and Strangulation and a Persistent Family Violence Offence, which change the landscape under which family violence is prosecuted. The Act also makes changes to expert evidence in family violence, i.e. in terms of ‘who is an expert?’ and there will be a requirement for directions to be given to the jury about family violence. Western Australia is the first state to introduce a Serial Family Violence Offender declaration - a means of identifying high risk family violence offenders who often move from victim to victim. This presentation will discuss these amendments and also the other changes such as dowry abuse, explosive prohibitions, electronic monitoring, traffic fines and penalties. Ms Kati Kraszlan is the Commissioner for Victims at the Department of Justice and advocates to Government for ongoing improvement in victim of crime legislation, policies and services in Western Australia. Mr Tom Samuels is the A/Assistant Director, Legislative Services, Strategic Reform at the Department of Justice. He was the instructing officer on the bill and responsible for its passage through parliament. Please click here to purchase tickets.