PROFESSIONAL SOLUTIONS

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Corporate Services 

Risk assessment and liability mitigation

Program evaluation

Applied research

Targeted interventions

Psychological autopsies following the suspicious death

Consulting on Title VII issues

Strategies for responding to returning combat veterans (heroes)

Conflict management within an agency

Leadership development through the use of 360-degrees feedback models

Training to prevent bias-based policing

Training to improve employee performance in highly specific skills such as report writing or pursuit driving

Responding to traumatic incidents

Provide training 

Implement Employee Assistance Program (if required)

Supervising peer support and personal wellness programs

Evaluating and Assisting Jury Competence in Civil or Criminal Cases 

First responders are regularly confronted with exposure to traumatic events, including potentially life-threatening situations, as well as the grave injuries and deaths of colleagues and civilians. Evidence indicates that the prevalence of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is substantially higher among first responders than the general population. This article provides information about the outpatient trauma services at McLean Hospital’s LEADER (Law Enforcement, Active Duty, Emergency Responder) program to assist clinicians who encounter these first responders in their practices or who are specifically interested in working with this patient population (Mash, 2019). 

First responders are exposed to potentially traumatic events repeatedly while on the job. For example, LEOs, EMT/ paramedics, and FFs are exposed to:

ü death, serious injury, and violence at significantly higher rates than most civilian professionals. Given the high frequency and severity of traumatic exposures, it is not surprising that first responders are at an elevated risk for developing PTSD(Mash,2019).

Risk Factors for Developing PTSD

Several non-occupational and occupation-specific risk factors may increase the likelihood of developing PTSD after traumatic stress exposure in LEOs, EMT/paramedics, and FFS. Non-occupational risk factors can be organized into three categories: historical, peritraumatic, and posttraumatic.

1. Historical risk factors include a family history of psychiatric disorders, intelligence, education, early conduct problems, childhood adversity, and childhood abuse

2. Peritraumatic risk factors include the severity of the traumatic event, perception of the trauma as life-threatening, actual physical injury or assault, dissociation during an incident, and magnitude of the dissociative response

3. Posttraumatic risk factors include the absence of social support, poor access to healthy coping skills, limited access to mental health resources, and other life stressors.

Occupation-specific risk factors include the cumulative nature of the traumatic events encountered on the job, the types of traumatic events encountered, routine occupational stress, the perception of inadequate workplace social support, and the concurrent experience of gender or ethnic discrimination or stigmatization.

Evaluation of Competency to Stand Trial:  TFCA licenced Psychologist will use a standardized competency measure, the ECST-R, which carefully and systematically walks the defendant through his or her understanding of the various aspects of the courtroom process, assesses his or her ability to cooperate with the attorney efficiently, and assesses for feigning incompetence.  The ECST-R is predicated on the Dusky standard.

Evaluation of Not Guilty by Reason of Insanity:  TFCA licenced Psychologist evaluates defendants for the insanity defence, being mindful of both the M’Naughton and ALI standards.  In addition, according to its relevance to the jurisdiction, our clinicians can testify for Mental State at the Time of the Offense as well as Diminished Capacity in courts where this is considered acceptable expert testimony.

Psychological mitigation of criminal charges:  A psychological evaluation of a criminal defendant can be an essential aspect of a plea negotiation. In many cases, the individual charged with the crime does not fit the expectable profile of the offender and may not warrant the same disposition. A thorough psychological assessment can assist the crown attorney in understanding the defendant's motivation for the crime and the likelihood of re-offending. In other cases, mitigation is not appropriate. Conversely, our forensic psychologists can assist criminal defence attorneys in helping their clients understand the difficulty of their claims, the likely views of the jury, and why a trial should be avoided.

Evaluation of Recidivism Risk: TFCA recommends standardized measures to assess the risk of reoffence and violent reoffence; the following measures to make these determinations:  LS/CMI (recidivism risk), HCR-20 (violence risk), PCL-R (psychopathy and violence risk) and the Static 99R (risk of sexual reoffense).  All of these measures are valid predictors of their target criteria.

Evaluation of Sexually Violent Predators: Canadian law provides for psychological assessment to determine whether an individual is a Sexually Violent Predator (SVP). Typically, the centrepiece of such an evaluation is a determination of the cause of the individual’s prior sexual offences. If the crimes were the result of a mental disorder, the individual might be legally defined as an SVP. Still, if the criminal offences were not the result of a mental disorder, the SVP statute does not apply. 

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