2017 Forensic Psychiatry Interest Group Report (Mark Hauser, MD, Jhilam Biswas, MD, Matthew Lahaie, MD)

The Forensic Psychiatry interest group (a.k.a. committee on psychiatry and law) looks forward to another active year. We met three times in the last year to grapple with issues relating to the Rogers Decision. We discussed the theoretical foundations of Rogers, and how it is implemented in actual practice. We brought together attorneys from the Committee for Public Counsel Services led by Attorney Mark Larsen with psychiatrists who work in various settings and with various patient populations throughout the state. We included attorneys who work for local hospitals. Judge Rosemary Minehan joined us to think about the issues that play out at Bridgewater State Hospital. We recognize the inevitable conflicts that arise in an adversarial process while at the same time working together to overcome inefficiencies and delays that arise in actual practice. We plan to build on the momentum by meeting several times this year with a continuing focus of fine tuning and improving the processes related to Commitment, Guardianship, antipsychotic medication treatment plans, informed consent, and other topics of relevance to psychiatric practice and the law.