The University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences is accepting applications for its ACGME-accredited Fellowship Program in Forensic Psychiatry. This program will lead to Board eligibility in Forensic Psychiatry. This ACGME-accredited program is sponsored by the Department of Psychiatry in the UAMS College of Medicine and the Arkansas Department of Human Services Office of Substance Abuse and Mental Health.
Fellows gain experience in forensic psychiatric evaluations and treatment of individuals involved in the criminal justice system. The clinical practice is balanced with a well-rounded didactic curriculum regarding topics of forensic psychiatry and landmark legal cases. Instruction is provided by faculty and adjunct-faculty members in the principles and practice of forensic psychiatry, the basics of substantive and procedural law, and case conferences on forensic and psychopharmacological issues. Fellows received weekly supervision by board-certified faculty, as well as an opportunity to learn from on-site faculty members and attorneys in the community.
Program components include:
- Criminal forensic evaluations regarding competency to stand trial, criminal responsibility, and other criminal competencies
- Violence risk assessments and sexual violence risk assessments
- Assessments of the suitability for conditional release post-acquittal due to mental disease or defect
- Civil commitment testimony
- Inpatient treatment of individuals involved in the criminal justice system located at the Arkansas State Hospital forensic units in Little Rock, including restoration of competency to stand trial and treatment of defendants acquitted due to mental disease or defect
- Rotate through a state-of-the-art adolescent sexual offender unit and participate in juvenile court evaluations
- Other rotations include experience in correctional psychiatry and experience with civil cases involving psychiatric disability, compensability, guardianship, parental fitness and other civil matters.
- Annual mock trial in October with local attorneys in an actual courtroom to prepare for providing expert testimony in their career
- Attendance at the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law Review Course and Conference