June 2, 2025

Dr. Jennifer Piel, director of the CMHPL, is piloting a case club. Participants will review and discuss two recent legal cases with significance to forensic mental health.

Cases for this meeting are both relevant to psychiatric malpractice:

• • DiNardo v. Kohler, et al. (2023)

• • Pediatrics Cool Care v. Thompson (2022)

November 12, 2024

“Civil Commitment 101: Overview of History and Current Practices” (Recording available)
Shadoe Jones, JD

December 13, 2024

“Civil Commitment Through the Ethics Lens: How We Got Here” (Recording available)
Philip Candilis, MD

January 7, 2025

“Designated Crisis Responders and the Involuntary Treatment Act in Washington State” (Recording available)
Dawn Macready-Santos, LICSW, and Laura Pippin, MSP

February 4, 2025 

“Lived Experiences with Civil Commitment” (Recording available)
Laura Van Tosh, Karen Schilde, and Carolynn Ponzoha

March 4, 2025

“An Academic-State-Community Partnership to Create a CBT Continuum of Care for Involuntary Committees in Washington State” (Recording available)
Sarah Kopelovich, PhD, ABPP

April 1, 2025

“Navigating Juvenile Involuntary Commitment in Washington State” (Recording available)
Shawgi Silver, MD, MPHS

May 13, 2025

“Policy Perspectives on Washington’s Continuum of Care for Severe Mental Illness” (Recording available)
Manka Dhingra, JD

June 10, 2025

A Panel Discussion on the Civil Commitment Hot Topics Series (Recording available)
Phililp Candilis, MD; Manka Dhingra, JD; Shadoe Jones, JD; Sarah Kopelovich, PhD, ABPP; Dawn Macready-Santos, LICSW; Laura Pippin, MSP; Shawgi Silver, MD; Laura Van Tosh

Drs. Jennifer Piel and Edward E. Goldenberg host a quarterly virtual journal club to discuss articles related to forensic mental health. The club is open to practicing clinicians, clinical trainees, and anyone interested in topics in forensic mental health.

July 28, 2025

Dr. Anna Borisovskaya will lead a discussion on two articles on electroconvulsive therapy in correctional settings:

• Resource Document for Electroconvulsive Therapy in Adult Correctional Settings
• The Use of Electroconvulsive Therapy on Death Row

April 28, 2025

Dr. Nisha Bhat, UW psychiatry resident and CMHPL ambassador, will lead a discussion on two articles on civil commitment for substance use:

• Civil Commitment for Substance Use Disorders: A National Survey of Addiction Medicine Physicians
• Insights from California on Involuntary Commitment for Substance Use

January 27, 2025

Dr. Drew Calhoun, a forensic psychiatrist, will lead a discussion on two articles about civil commitment:

• The Dramatic Decline of Civil Commitment in Oregon, 1972 to 2020
• Taking an Evidence-Based Approach to Involuntary Psychiatric Hospitalization

October 28, 2024

Dr. Claire Ashbaugh, a forensic psychologist, will lead a discussion on two articles about forensic evaluations in immigration cases:

• What Constitutes a High-Quality, Comprehensive Medico-Legal Asylum Affidavit in the United States Immigration Context? A Multi-Sectoral Consensus-Building Modified Delphi
• Competency to Stand Trial in Immigration Proceedings

July 29, 2024

Dr. Claire Oduwo, UW psychiatry resident and CMHPL trainee ambassador, will lead a discussion on two articles about psychiatric advance directives:

• Psychiatric Advance Directives: No Longer a Fool’s Errand
• Opportunities and Challenges of Self-Binding Directives: An Interview Study With Mental Health Service Users and Professionals in the Netherlands

April 29, 2024

The Honorable Judge Michael Finkle will lead a discussion of articles focused on the theme of therapeutic jurisprudence:

• A National Survey of Problem-Solving Court Staff Perceptions of In-Person versus Virtual Hearings
• Expanding Therapeutic Jurisprudence Across the Federal Judiciary

January 29, 2024

Guest discussant Mandi Maycumber will lead a discussion on two articles about police recruitment and stressors:

• Motivations for becoming a police officer: A global snapshot
• Predictors, mediators and moderators of police work-related stress: A scoping review

October 23, 2023

Attendees will discuss two articles about competency restoration, led by guest discussant Victoria Shepard:

• Factors influencing adjudicative competence and length of time to restoration
• Cognitive behavior therapy for psychosis as an adjunct to competency restoration

July 24, 2023

Participants will discuss two articles about violence risk assessment:

• From predicting dangerousness to assessing and managing risk for violence: A journey across four generations
• Investigating the dynamic nature of multiple risk assessment instruments in a forensic mental health hospital

April 24, 2023

In this first session, Dr. Goldenberg will lead participants in discussing two articles related to correctional mental health:

• Forensic psychology and correctional psychology: Distinct but related subfields of psychological science and practice
• Dual agency and ethics conflicts in correctional practice: Sources and solutions

December 12, 2024

The Forensic Spotlight is an informal virtual meet-and-greet to learn about Dr. Candilis’ work in forensic mental health and his career path. All are welcome, and psychiatry residents and other health professions trainees are especially encouraged to attend.

Philip Candilis, MD, trained at Massachusetts General Hospital and the Harvard Ethics Program, completing his forensic fellowship at UMass Medical School. On faculty at UMass for 18 years, Dr. Candilis conducted federally funded research on informed consent, staffed inpatient state hospital units, and consulted to the Massachusetts Board of Medicine and Physician Health Service. Dr. Candilis has contributed to professional ethics through organizational statements, reports, and academic papers with the American College of Physicians, Group for the Advancement of Psychiatry (GAP), American Psychiatric Association (APA), and American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law (AAPL). He has chaired the ethics committees of APA, AAPL, and GAP, and served as hospital ethicist to two hospitals. In forensic ethics, Dr. Candilis has articulated models of professionalism, feminist theory, and epistemology. He began his term as President-elect of AAPL in October.

This American Psychiatric Association course is designed to address what psychiatrists in general practice need to know in order to engage effectively with the legal system. Through case presentations, interactive role-play, and didactics, participants will learn the core practical skill and knowledge needed to better interact with the courts in these matters. Topics will include treatment over objection, hospital retention, report writing, and testifying in court.

Instructors:
Jennifer Piel, MD, JD
George Annas, MD
Tobias Wasser, MD

VIEW COURSE

April 4, 2024

Dr. Steve Zuchowski will share tips and tricks for efficient and protective documentation to prevent future malpractice actions.

February 9, 2024

The Spotlight is an informal meet-and-greet with opportunity to learn more from Dr. Brendel about her work, interests, and roles she has had related to forensic psychiatry, law, and policy. All are welcome, and psychiatry residents and other health professions trainees are especially encouraged to attend.

Dr. Brendel works at the intersection of psychiatry, medicine, law, and ethics at Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital, and is a past president of the APA.

February 9, 2024

Rebecca Weintraub Brendel, MD, JD, will describe key challenges for psychiatry, as well as efforts of the American Psychiatric Association (APA) to prepare psychiatry for the future. Against this backdrop, it will then turn to focus on how the unique knowledge, expertise, and skills of forensic psychiatrists can contribute to policy and practice solutions.

Dr. Brendel works at the intersection of psychiatry, medicine, law, and ethics at Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital, and is a past president of the APA.

WATCH RECORDING

February 21, 2023 & February 26, 2024

Dr. Jennifer Piel will host a session for interested UW psychiatry residents to discuss rotations and opportunities in forensic mental health. Residents who participated in forensic rotations will be available to summarize their experiences. Both residents and instructors will be available for questions and discussion.

November 16 & December 13, 2023

Drs. Jennifer Piel and Joellyn Sheehy have organized virtual focus groups to better understand the experiences of attorneys who work with clients who have had suicidal thinking or behaviors. They are particularly interested in learning about what criminal defense attorneys would find most useful in trainings on suicide and other mental health topics. This information will be used to develop educational programming to assist attorneys and their clients.

December 15, 2022

This webinar, hosted by the Treatment Advocacy Center, features Dr. Sarah Kopelovich, core faculty member of the Center for Mental Health, Policy, and the Law. She will discuss CBT for psychosis, an evidence-based treatment that addresses the distress of experiencing psychosis and functional impairments. Research shows that it can reduce hospitalization, increase medication adherence, and increase insight, which makes it an ideal therapeutic partner to assisted outpatient treatment.

December 9, 2022

Cheryl Wills, MD, child and forensic psychiatrist and chair of the APA task force on structural racism, will discuss topics related to race, policing, and mental illness, including the gap in knowledge of how intrinsic and extrinsic biases in medicine and law enforcement affect healthcare outcomes in members of minority groups, including people who have mental disorders.

WATCH RECORDING

December 8, 2022

Although all are welcome, this event is particularly aimed for trainees in mental health disciplines, other healthcare programs, law, and criminal justice. The format will be informal and is intended for trainees to ask questions about forensic mental health, training in this subspecialty, and what it is like to work in forensic mental health settings. Cheryl Wills, MD, has nationally-recognized expertise in adult, child, and forensic psychiatry, as well as organized medicine and advocacy.