About the Faculty The
Faculty aims to:
1. Improve psychiatric care for all mentally disordered offenders 2.
Improve training and research in Forensic Psychiatry
3. 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.
Officers
and Executive Committee The
Officers of the Faculty are:
Chair:
Dr. Damian Mohan Honorary
Secretary: Dr. Helen O’Neill
The
Executive Committee looks after the day to day business of the
Faculty and meets approximately every 10 weeks.Current members are:
Dr.
Damian Mohan – Chair of the Faculty
Dr.
Helen O’Neill – Honorary Secretary of the Faculty
Dr.
G J Calvert
Dr.
Harry Kennedy
Dr.
Miriam Kennedy
Dr.
Paul O’Connell
Dr. Conor O'Neill
Dr. Brenda Wright
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)
In March 2005 the Irish College of Psychiatrists
made a submission to the NationalPrison
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.
To read more, click 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.To
read more, click here.
Mental
Health Expert Group – The Faculty submitted a document
entitled “Service Provision inForensic Psychiatry:
A Policy Document for the Forensic Psychiatry Section of the Irish
College ofPsychiatrists” 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.
Click here to see a copy
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
– Click here to see
the 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 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.For
more click here.
Following
the recent Seanad Eireann debate in relation to the Criminal
Law (Insanity) Bill 2001 a letter was sent to the Taoiseach.
Click here to read the letter.
8th - 10th February 2006 - Hilton Hotel, Gateshead,
UK
Annual Faculty of Forensic Psychiatry Residential Meeting. Further
details will be available from the RCPsych
website in due course.
30th
- 31st March 2006 - Clarion Hotel Liffey Valley, Dublin
Business Meeting of the Forensic Faculty to be held during the
ICPsych Spring Meeting
RCPsych
Faculty of Forensic Psychiatry Click
here to visit the webpage of the RCPsych Faculty
