Faculty of Forensic Psychiatry

About the Faculty


The Faculty aims to:

 

  • Improve psychiatric care for all mentally disordered offenders
  • Improve training and research in Forensic Psychiatry
  • Provide a forensic resource for expert opinion to the Government and other agencies in matters of civil and criminal law where they interact with Psychiatry. 


Chair:                         Dr. Paul O'Connell

Honorary Secretary:   Dr. Conor O’Neill

 

The Executive Committee looks after the day to day business of the Faculty and meets approximately every 10 weeks. 

 

Date of Next Meeting : 03 SEPTEMBER 2010 @ 10AM

 

Venue : 5 HERBERT STREET, DUBLIN 2

 

Activities of the Faculty
Activities of the Faculty of Forensic Psychiatry include the following:

 

DVD Review - Dr. Miriam Kennedy, Senior Registrar has written a review of the DVD "Looking at the Assessment of Sex Offenders" (November 2005)

 

ASBOs - Dr. Stephen McWilliams, Registrar at the Central Mental Hospital has written an article in relation to ASBOs (July 2005)

Forensic Psychiatry in Ireland - Dr. Damian Mohan, Consultant Psychiatrist at the Central Mental Hospital has written an article on Forensic Psychiatry in Ireland today (June 2005)

In March 2005 the Irish College of Psychiatrists made a submission to the National Prison Health Working Group. This submission was prepared on behalf of the Irish College of Psychiatrists by the Faculty of Adult Psychiatry and Faculty of Forensic Psychiatry. Some input was also included from the Faculty of Psychiatry of Learning Disability. Read more here

 

Book Review - Dr. Miriam Kennedy, Senior Registrar has written a review of the book "Assessing Competence to Consent to Treatment" (October 2004)

Forensic Psychiatry and the Needs of Children – The Faculty held a joint meeting with the Faculty of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry in April 2004.  A very interesting discussion took place around the needs of children.  Read more today

 

Mental Health Expert Group – The Faculty submitted a document entitled “Service Provision in Forensic Psychiatry: A Policy Document for the Forensic Psychiatry Section of the Irish College of Psychiatrists”  to the Mental Health Expert Group in December 2003.  Thanks to Dr. Harry Kennedy who undertook a major amount of the work in preparing this document.


 

Organisation of a seminar “Legal and Clinical Aspects of Irish Mental Health Law” on the 21st November 2003.  Speakers included Dr. Darius Whelan, University College Cork who gave a presentation on Mental Health Review Tribunals and Prof. Paul McCutcheon, University of Limerick who spoke about the Criminal Law (Insanity) Bill 2002.  The seminar was extremely well attended and it is expected that a similar event will be organised in the future. 

 

2nd Report of the Working Group for Child and Adolescent Services
Comments submitted to the ICPsych Executive in September 2003.

 

Working Group on Patient Escorts – The Faculty submitted a response to the draft report of this working group to the ICPsych Executive in September 2003. For more, click here

 

Barr Tribunal – Submission to the ICPsych Executive on firearms and mental illness (April 2003).  This submission was incorporated into an overall response from the ICPsych to the Barr Tribunal.  

The Faculty has representatives on a number of ICPsych committees such as:

 

The Chair of the Faculty is also a member of the RCPsych Forensic Psychiatry Faculty. 


 

European Meeting of Teachers of Forensic Psychiatry


Forensic Psychiatrists with responsibilities for teaching in a number of European countries held an inaugural meeting in Ghent, Belgium in late March 2004.  The following countries were represented: Holland, Germany, UK, France, Sweden, Denmark, Belgium and Ireland.

A series of discussions and meetings took place to identify ways in which education in Forensic Psychiatry can be approved across the Union.

Discussion took place with special reference to possible changes in CCST arrangements.  It became clear that due to working across different legal jurisdictions links were not very strong either in Europe and many countries were working in isolation.  The objective of the conference was to learn about training in other systems.  Further information is available by  clicking here

 

New York, April 2004 - Joint International Conference


As part of the ongoing commitment of the Forensic Psychiatry Faculty of the Royal College to develop international relationships, the Faculty held a joint meeting with the Tri State Chapter of American Academy of Psychiatry and Law (AAPL) in New York between 22-24 April 2004.

The programme included a visit to Rikers Island Jail and a visit to Kirby Forensic Psychiatric Centre, Wards Island.  To read more, click here

 

News :

Dr. Helen O’Neill has written an article on The Irish Forensic Psychiatric Service.  Read more .  

  

 

Interesting Links