The Role of the Mental Health Professional
Use the menu at right to explore all of the mental health evaluator training resources in this section.
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Central American Victims of Gang Violence as Asylum Seekers: The Role of the Forensic Expert
Jesus-Rentas, G, Boehnlein, J, Sparr, L (2010) Journal of the American Academy Psychiatry Law 38:490–8, 2010
In recent years, mental health practitioners have become involved in the evaluation of asylum seekers who claim to be victims of torture and persecution because of their political points of view, or because of oppression in their country of origin. In this article, the authors explore the requirements for requesting asylum in the United States, the expectations of the immigration court and immigration attorneys, and the purpose and methodology of forensic consultation, through the case of a Central American asylum applicant.
Centre for the Study of Emotion and Law
The Centre for the Study of Emotion and Law is a resource hub on traumatic memory and its effect on asylum claims. Among other valuable resources, it shares scholarly papers by CSEL authors, which might otherwise require a paid journal subscription.
Link: http://csel.org.ukCollaborating with Mental Health Professionals: Assessments of Torture Survivors Seeking Asylum
Collaborating With Mental Health Professionals.pdf
Tip Sheet. (2011, 4 pp.)
Forensic Dual or Multiple Relationships: Treating Clinician vs Forensic Expert
Zur, Offer. Dual Relationships: The ethical way
Listing of resources and articles on the role of Expert vs. Therapist.
Irreconcilable Conflict Between Therapeutic and Forensic Roles
Greenberg, S., Shuman, D, (1997), Professional Psychology: Research and Practice, February 1997 Vol. 28, No. 1, 50-57, American Psychological Association
The authors present the principles that underlie why combining clinical and forensic roles is conflicting and problematical, and stress the importance of avoiding such conflicts, avoiding the threat to the efficacy of therapy, avoiding the threat to the accuracy of judicial determinations, and avoiding deception when providing testimony.
Sample Sequence for Mental Health Professional (MHP) Role in Asylum Process
Sample Sequence.pdf
Schedule of interaction points between lawyer and expert in preparing the case, National Capacity-building Project, 7/28/11, Materials from training institute: Torture Survivors Seeking Asylum: The Intersection of Forensic Mental Health Evaluation and Legal Representation. (2011, 1 p.)
The Role of Mental Health Professionals in Political Asylum Processing
Meffert, Susan, Musalo, Karen, McNiel, Dale and Binder, Renée (2010), Journal of American Academy of Psychiatry, 38:479-489
The authors describe the legal context of asylum applications, identify concerns of particular legal importance that can be addressed by mental health evaluations of asylees, and discuss the role of mental health professionals in consultations with immigration attorneys, including training in safe and efficient interviewing of traumatized clients and development of skills to protect against the risk of burnout and secondary trauma among immigration attorneys.
