Graduate Medical Education

Curriculum
Consistent with the descriptions of core content areas in the field of forensic psychology provided by the American Board of Forensic Psychology and APA’s Division 41/The American Psychology-Law Society (2007), the fellowship curriculum includes the following content domains:

Knowledge foundations for the study and practice of forensic psychology:

1. Landmark Cases in Relevant Content Areas
2. History of Forensic Psychology
3. Forensic Psychological Ethics
4. Forensic Ethics: Minimizing Forensic Identification (Bias) in Forensic Psychological Practice
5. Considerations of Safety and Security in a Forensic Setting
6. Cross-Cultural Issues in Forensic Psychology
7. The Military Forensic Psychological Consultation
8. Assessment of Malingering
9. Evaluation of Mens Rea (2 seminars)
   Criminal Responsibility
   Partial Mental Responsibility
   Specific Intent
10. Evaluation of Criminal Competencies (2 seminars)
    Competency to Stand Trial
    Competency to be Sentenced
    Competency to Plead Pro Se
    Competency to be Executed
    Competency to Confess/Waive Article 31B (Miranda) Rights
11. Evaluation of Civil Competencies
    Competency to Care for Self (Guardianship)
    Testamentary Capacity
12. Violence Risk Assessment (3 seminars or 1 Full-day Seminar)
13. Suicide Risk Assessment
14. N. Personal Injury Evaluations
15. Personnel Selection/Fitness for Duty Evaluations
16. Child Custody Evaluations & Evaluations of Juveniles/Waiver to Adult court/Amenability to Treatment
17. Forensic Report Writing
18. Expert Witness Testimony
19. Treatment of the Forensic Patient
20. Treatment of Sex Offenders
21. Research with Forensic Populations
22. Utilizing Research (Legal and Psychological) to Help Answer Forensic Referral Questions
23. Training and Supervision of Forensic Psychology Interns, and Post-Doctoral Fellows
24. Jury Selection and Factors Influencing Jury Decision Making
25. Eyewitness Testimony
26. False and Coerced Confessions
27. Americans with Disabilities Act and Workman’s Compensation

Additional training in criminal law and foundations of the criminal justice system are provided through a one semester course in Criminal Law taught at Georgetown University or through a month-long program at The Judge Advocate General’s Legal Center and School. Additional didactic topics may be added at the discretion of the Forensic Psychology Fellowship Director.

Didactics are provided both through the psychology faculty only, and via an integrated didactic schedule with the forensic psychiatry department at Walter Reed. A tentative summary of the 2012 - 2013 didactic schedule is provided in Appendix L. First year fellows are expected to attend all of the didactics, with realization that some additional training activities (especially participation in off-post courts martial) will preclude attendance at 100% of the trainings. These can be made up via supervision sessions, review of power point presentations (when and if provided for a given didactic) or via make up the second year. Second year fellows are encouraged to attend didactics as well and will lead or co-lead a number of the didactic presentations during their second year. The main purpose is to provide a teaching opportunity for the second year fellow, to further solidify knowledge, familiarity, and detailed mastery of the components which they learned the first year, and to demonstrate this mastery with faculty present and participating.

Specific knowledge foundations for use of relevant forensic mental health assessment instruments:
Fellows will participate in a forensic mental health assessment lab the first term of the first year of the fellowship. The purpose of the lab is to familiarize fellows with the development, utilization, scoring, and interpretation of a variety of specialized forensic mental health instruments. Cases will be drawn primarily through those fellows are working on.

Participation in forensic service delivery in clinics or units: experiential training

1. Walter Reed National Military Medical Center Psychology and Psychiatry Clinics and Hospital
2. St. Elizabeths Hospital
3. FBI’s Behavioral Analysis Unit at Quantico, Virginia (elective)
4. Expert Consultancies to JAG Corps members (Defense and Government) throughout the United States and the world.
5. Psychological Services unit at the National Security Agency, Ft. Meade Maryland (elective)
6. Behavioral Analysis Unit of the US Marshals Service, Arlington Virginia (elective)
7. Other Practice Experiences at WRNMMC or through the US Army as may be developed by or requested of the Forensic Fellowship Director.

In order to foster broader development of our Forensic Psychology Fellows, we strongly encourage them to choose at least one of the elective rotations which are in place. Fellows who do not wish to participate in any of the elective rotations will need to have a reasonable justification for alternative use of the additional time that would be made available via not attending any of the available rotations. A reasonable justification might be to attend another practice opportunity as mentioned under number 7, immediately above. In general, the reasonableness of the request will be judged by the Fellowship Program Director in terms of whether alternative use of the time that would have been devoted to the elective rotation serves to broaden or deepen the Fellows’ overall training experience, forensic knowledge, and forensic skills.