Wright State University, Department of Psychiatry, Division of Forensic Psychiatry

Psychiatrists who join our fellowship program become learners and instructors in a psychiatry department that has a national reputation for excellence in post-graduate education. The Wright State fellowship emphasizes the importance of using up-to-date scientific knowledge and validated assessment tools when formulating forensic opinions. We also help fellows develop all the customary skills of forensic psychiatrists — conducting evaluations, appreciating the role of psychiatrists in the legal system, knowing relevant case law, and communicating effectively in reports and testimony.

Fellows may choose a full-time, one-year schedule or a half-time, two-year schedule. At a local public hospital, fellows perform evaluations of adjudicatory competence, criminal responsibility, competence to refuse treatment, need for involuntary hospitalization, and conditional release to the community. Experience with civil issues (e.g., psychological damages in tort litigation) comes from private cases referred to faculty members. Fellows observe and participate in treatment programs in a traditional prison setting, and gain experience in evaluating sex offenders.

Fellows attend didactic activities at Wright State and attend tutorials with University of Cincinnati fellows. We provide funds to attend the annual AAPL meeting and the forensic psychiatry review course. Fellows participate in the Internet course on Law and Mental Disability taught by Professor Michael L. Perlin of New York Law School. Structured reading, grand rounds, a monthly forensic seminar, and faculty- or fellow-initiated research round out the training experience.

Faculty members include two attorneys with widely recognized expertise in law and psychology issues, and a psychiatrist with faculty appointments at the school of medicine and the law school. Ten other psychiatrists with added qualifications in forensic psychiatry are on the faculty.