NS5362:03
Issues in Forensic Mental Health 2
| External | HECS Band 1 |
80 contact hours. Semester 2.
Available to Graduate Certificate of Forensic Mental Health students.
Staff: Professor C Holmes.
Epidemiology and statistics relating to mentally ill offenders. Diagnosis and offence behaviour. Mentally ill offenders and theories of crime. Interpretations of society’s responses to the mentally ill offender. Responses to mentally ill offenders in Australia and overseas, including care in the community. Deinstitutionalisation, mentally ill people in prison, inquiries, catastrophes and institutional responses. Education and research in forensic mental health. Responding to psychopathy and personality disorder. Working in secure institutions.
Learning Objectives:
- to critically evaluate statistical information concerning the prevalence of mentally ill offenders internationally, nationally and locally;
- to discuss the issues of dual diagnosis and the complications for clinical practice raised by drug and alcohol abuse;
- to critically discuss criminalisation, social justice, class and sub-cultural theories of mentally ill offenders;
- to critically discuss commonly held views of responsibility, freedom and autonomy and of sickness, rehabilitation and punishment in relation to mentally ill offenders;
- to describe the political and social controls and clinical resources for managing mentally ill offenders, including those with personality disorders and critically explore the thinking behind them.
Assessment by essay (50%); clinical problem analysis (50%).