The Annual General Meeting of ANZAPPL WA will take place on Wednesday 9 November 2022. This will be followed by a lecture presented by Dr David Curnow titled The Psychology of Fraud and Embezzlement. Please click here for further information about this lecture. Registering for the lecture includes registration for the AGM. Please click here to register. Documentation for the Annual General Meeting can be found here. Only active members of the Association can access this link.

Senior lawyers and clinicians will provide attendees with the skills and knowledge to become confident in the role of expert witness. About this event Mental health clinicians acting as expert witnesses are tasked with forming and communicating an expert opinion, grounded in clinical expertise, to assist a decision-maker (such as a court or a legal tribunal) regarding a matter of dispute in which mental health factors are potentially relevant. In this two-day workshop, senior lawyers, psychologists, and psychiatrists will provide attendees with the skills and knowledge to become confident in the role of expert witness, based on the relevant literature and their experiences in law and forensic psychiatry. Topics include Preparing for and handling cross-examination Formulating clinical opinions to assist with sentencing Managing the lawyer/expert interface Application of relevant Supreme Court Expert Evidence Notes Facilitators Tim Marsh has practiced exclusively in criminal law for over 20 years. Tim was appointed as a Senior Public Defender at Victoria Legal Aid in 2011. In 2013, he was appointed as Chief Counsel, and for the next 7 years led VLA Chambers, before deciding to return to the Bar in November 2020. While Tim practices in all areas of crime, he has a strong practice in mental impairment and disability law. His work at first instance and on appeal in this area have helped clarify and reshape how the Victorian Courts treat offenders with mental illnesses. In 2020, his advocacy in the decision of Brown v The Queen saw the 2017 case of DPP v O'Neill overturned, allowing courts to take personality disorders into account in sentencing. Tim was counsel in the landmark case of DPP v Walters, which saw the controversial 'baseline sentencing' reforms declared 'incapable of practical application' by the Court of Appeal. Tim regularly appears in serious homicide cases: he was counsel at first instance for Jaymes Todd (the murder of Eurydice Dixon) and Codey Herrmann (the murder of Aiia Maasarwe). In 2021, he successfully resisted an attempt by the DPP to overturn the 36-year sentence imposed on Codey Herrmann before a full bench of the Court of Appeal in a decision of national significance for the sentencing of aboriginal offenders. Tim was a member of the Victorian Law Reform Steering Committee for the VLRC reference into mental impairment and is a past legal member of the Mental Health Review Board. Sam Norton is a partner at Stary Norton Halphen Criminal lawyers, is an accredited criminal law specialist, and is ranked in the Doyles’ guide as a Preeminent Criminal Defence solicitor. He is an advocate with extensive experience in trials and plea hearings in both the Supreme Court and County Court – including those under the Crimes (Mental Impairment and Unfitness to be Tried) Act. Sam has appeared in a number of fitness investigations and mental impairment trials including but not limited to homicides. He also has extensive experience adducing evidence from psychiatrists and psychologists at plea hearings and bail applications. Diana Piekusis QC is a Senior Crown Prosecutor at the Office of Public Prosecutions. Diana has extensive experience in criminal law and appears predominantly in the Court of Appeal and Supreme Court. Diana also appears and provides advice in relation to matters under the Crimes (Mental Impairment and Unfitness to be Tried) Act and the Serious Offenders Act. Diana provides instructions to counsel and solicitors regarding expert evidence in all criminal matters. Dr Andrew Carroll has worked as a forensic psychiatrist in both treatment and assessment roles in Australia for over two decades. He currently carries out treatment work in a prison clinic for Forensicare, medicolegal assessment work in both criminal and civil fields, and is an Adjunct Associate Professor at the Centre for Forensic Behavioural Science (Swinburne University of Technology). He has published on a range of topics including the interface between mental disorder and sentencing in the criminal courts. Dr Michael Davis is a Forensic Clinical Psychologist in full time private practice and the National Chair of the APS College of Forensic Psychologists. He has adjunct appointments at Swinburne, Monash, and Melbourne Universities. Dr Davis’ consulting practice is divided between forensic clinical assessment tasks and providing behavioural investigative advice to police agencies. He has provided behavioural investigative advice to police in several countries across three continents and serves as an instructor to the Behavioral Analysis Unit of the FBI. Dr Davis has conducted hundreds of assessments for the courts and in consultation for area mental health services, government departments, and private lawyers. He has given expert evidence several hundred times on the topics of risk assessment, personality disorder, and sexual deviance. Location Day 1 (Friday, 10 am - 3 pm) will be held at the State Library of Victoria. Day 2 (Saturday, 10 am - 3 pm) will be held at the Old Melbourne Gaol. Morning tea and lunch will be provided. Registration Tickets are essential for this event. Please click here to purchase your ticket.

Commissioner for Victims of Crime Kati Kraszlan invites members of ANZAPPL WA and other interested parties to attend the Victim Voices conference on 16 September 2022. A focus of the conference will be how to support diverse victims of crime, all of whom have different needs. The conference will hear from victim representatives, while Attorney General John Quigley, the Chief Justice, the Hon Peter Quinlan SC, and Department of Justice Director General Dr Adam Tomison will deliver speeches. A panel will examine the ‘victims’ journey’, with representatives from each phase of the criminal justice system discussing ways to make the experience less traumatic. The conference will also be looking at the findings of a WA-first evaluation of the State’s pilot justice facility dog program, where Winston the Labrador visits public areas of the Children’s Court to provide support.  The conference’s announcement follows the State Government tasking the Law Reform Commission with reviewing the State’s sexual offence laws and the with an end-to-end review of the criminal justice system for victims of crime. Tickets for the event, to be held at the State Library of Western Australia, are free but must be booked at https://justice.wa.gov.au/victim-voice-conference.

Presented by Kati Kraszlan, Commissioner for Victims of Crime. Please join us for our first dinner seminar to be held on the beautiful grounds of UWA at the University Club of Western Australia. Price: $60 per head, includes two course dinner and seminar. Please advise of any dietary requirements when booking your ticket. Cash bar will be available to purchase drinks on the night. When Rowan Baxter murdered Hannah Clark and her three children in February 2020 coercive control became a subject of intense media and public interest. The interest was furthered through the strong advocacy of Jess Hill and many March 4 Women’s Justice movements. Yet the concept of coercive control is not new and many practitioners in the family and domestic violence sector have been reporting the damaging and dangerous nature of coercive control for years. Public understanding of the concept has lagged behind and this can at least be partly attributed to the criminal justice system focusing on domestic violence as a series of physically violent incidents. For the victims of coercion and control recognition of the severity of the behaviour and its impact on them is paramount. The Office of the Commissioner for Victims of Crime is currently conducting a state-wide consultation process on how the law and the legal system in Western Australia responds to coercive control. But coercive control is complex. It intersects with many other issues including trauma, mental health, and addictions. The question of whether to criminalise coercive control is also complex and legal responses alone are not the solution. This informative and interactive discussion will focus on the complexities of coercion and control, issues to be covered include what would be the role of psychologists and psychiatrists if it was to be criminalised, how do we assess such behaviour for both victims and for perpetrators and what could be the difficulties, from legal perspectives, in obtaining successful prosecutions. Please click here to purchase your ticket.

Presented by Robert Guthrie, this seminar addresses a range of workplace issues, with a focus on employer and employee rights in relation to vaccination, workers compensation and return to work, consequent upon the outbreak and spread of Covid-19 in Australia since 2020. It will briefly address some changes to the workplace generally and then consider the sometimes-complex issues arising from injury and stress related claims which have resulted in some changed behaviours in claims and injury management. It concludes the theme emerging from decided cases (concerning vaccination and return to work) to date is employers, insurers and rehabilitation providers must adopt a reasonable approach to the consultation and implementation of workplace changes which affect injured workers subject to return to work programs. Dr Rob Guthrie is Adjunct Professor of Workers Compensation and Workplace Law at John Curtin Institute of Public Police Curtin University. He was admitted to practice as Barrister and Solicitor in 1982 and practiced in the area of workers compensation and workplace law for approximately 10 years before turning to academic research and teaching into the area. He was the author of reports to the WA Government on workers compensation in 1991, 1999 and 2001. He was part of the WA WorkCover Review in 2009. In 2011-12 he was on the National Committee to advise the Federal Minister for Employment in relation to Asbestos removal in Australia. He has been a consultant to WorkCover WA and various Ministers responsible for workers compensation legislation. He holds B Juris, LLB LLM MCom and PhD. He is the author of LexisNexis Workers Compensation Western Australia and has published over 100 articles in peer-referred journals. He was sworn in as Magistrate/Assessor of Criminal Injuries Compensation in 2010. Click here to purchase tickets.

The emergence of legislation that allows offenders to be detained beyond their prison sentence has brought into particular focus the value of intervention for high-risk offenders. Whilst the traditional treatment programs adopting a skills-based cognitive behaviour approach have shown utility in reducing assessed risk, a sub-set of offenders continue to struggle to engage and benefit from the treatments offered in custodial contexts. Since many of these individuals have characteristic problems associated with severe personality disorder, the challenge for practitioners is less about identifying risk and more about overcoming responsivity issues. This presentation will discuss the challenges and pitfalls of working with offenders in this context with a particular focus on the application of forensic schema therapy to severe personality disorder. Materials Therapy in confined spaces: forensic schema therapy with severe personality disorder [PDF] Forensic schema therapy: an introduction [PDF] Contact For further information please contact ANZAPPL QLD President Mark Kebbell on m.kebbell@griffith.edu.au

Jane Sanders is the principal solicitor of The Shopfront Youth Legal Centre, a free legal service for homeless and disadvantaged young people, based in inner-city Sydney. The Shopfront provides court representation and other legal services to young people with high and complex needs who cannot effectively access Legal Aid and other mainstream legal services.Jane is an accredited specialist in criminal law and children’s law. She has almost 30 years’ experience appearing for children and young adults in criminal matters in the Children’s, Local, District and Supreme Courts. Of necessity, given the composition of her client group, Jane has become an expert in diversionary procedures for people with cognitive and mental health impairments.Jane's role also includes providing legal education and in campaigning for law reform on issues that affect young and disadvantaged people. She is an active member (and now the Chair) of the NSW Law Society Criminal Law Committee and also sits on other committees and working groups. In 2008 Jane was awarded the NSW Law and Justice Foundation’s Justice Medal, for “outstanding individual achievement in improving access to justice, especially for socially and economically disadvantaged people”. In 2014 she received the Terry Keaney Memorial Award for “dedication to the profession, excellence as a criminal lawyer, commitment to clients and concerns for social justice”. This event will follow the ANZAPPL NSW Annual General Meeting 2022. Please click here for further information about the AGM. Registration is essential. Please click here to register.

The Annual General Meeting of ANZAPPL New South Wales will take place at 6pm (AEDT) on Wednesday 9 March 2022, via Zoom. All active members of ANZAPPL New South Wales are encouraged to attend. Please click here to access an agenda for this meeting and forms. This meeting will be immediately followed by a lecture delivered by Jane Sanders, Thoughts on the new Mental Health and Cognitive Impairment Act and how it is working in the Local Court. Registration for the lecture includes registration for the Annual General Meeting. Please click here to register.

This presentation will provide an overview of: The prevalence study of Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) and other neurodevelopmental impairments conducted at Banksia Hill Detention Centre in Western Australia The workforce development component, including a demonstration of training resources aiming to upskill justice professionals in the management of young people with neurodevelopmental impairments The implications of this research, and related recommendations Dr Hayley Passmore is a child health researcher based at the Telethon Kids Institute in Boorloo (Perth). Hayley has qualifications in child health, criminology and psychology, and over 10 years working in adult corrections and youth justice facilities. In 2019, she completed her PhD focusing on the workforce development component of the internationally recognised Banksia Hill Detention Centre study; the first Australian study to explore the prevalence of Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) among justice-involved young people. Hayley is the project lead and developer of Reframe Training; an evidence-based program educating frontline staff on the management and support of young people with neurodisability. Hayley has received international recognition for her research and its impact, including receiving a 2020 Churchill Fellowship, being named a 2021 AMP Foundation Tomorrow Maker and a 2022 WA Finalist for Young Australian of the Year. Tickets are essential. Please click here for tickets.

Professor Ian Freckelton AO QC will review the major recommendations of the 5 volume 2021 report of the Royal Commission into Victoria’s Mental Health System which is in the process of being implemented in the form of the Mental Health and Wellbeing Bill 2022. He will outline the proposed new structures and fresh approaches to the delivery of mental health services in Victoria, identifying the key issues of controversy and the tensions within the reform process. He will explore the human rights underpinnings of the new legislation, reflecting on the counter-therapeutic effects of the use of coercion and the approaches most conducive to facilitating recovery from mental illness. He will identify key issues that arise in relation to the use of coercive powers in imposition of assessment, temporary treatment and treatment orders, as well as in relation to the use of isolation, seclusion and chemical, and bodily restraint. Ultimately he will argue that, while clarification of objectives of mental health legislation and structural and legislative improvements have a role to play in mental health service law reform, the key issue is how government can improve non-coercive, therapeutic provision of services for persons with mental illnesses and thereby enhance recovery trajectories. This lecture will take place over Zoom. Attendance is free but registration is essential. Please click here to register. Ian Freckelton is a Queen’s Counsel with a practice throughout Australia and a judge of the Supreme Court of Nauru. He is a Professor of Law and a Professorial Fellow of Psychiatry at the University of Melbourne, an Honorary Professor of Forensic Medicine at Monash University and an Adjunct Professor at Johns Hopkins University in the United States. He is an elected Fellow of the Australian Academy of Law, the Australian Academy of Social Sciences and the Australasian College of Legal Medicine. Ian has been a member of 10 statutory tribunals, including the Mental Health Tribunal between 1996 and 2021. He is a member of the Coronial Council of Victoria and was the Commissioner of the Victorian Law Reform Commission on the Medicinal Cannabis reference. He was the Binational President of ANZAPPL between 1991 and 1997 and was also President of the Victorian Branch of ANZAPPL for a number of years. He was elected a life-member of ANZAPPL in 1997. Ian is the Editor of the Journal of Law and Medicine and was the Editor-in-Chief of Psychiatry, Psychology and Law between 1994 and 2019. He remains its Founding Editor and Editor at Large. Ian is the author of 50 books and over 700 articles and chapters of books. He was appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia in the 2021 Queen’s Birthday Honours for "distinguished service to the law, and to the legal profession, across fields including health, medicine and technology.”

The Annual General Meeting of ANZAPPL Victoria will take place at 6pm (AEDT) on Tuesday 7 December 2021, via Zoom. All active members of ANZAPPL Victoria are welcome to attend. Active members of the Association can access relevant forms here. A Zoom link will be sent to all active ANZAPPL Victoria and Tasmania members an hour prior to the meeting. This meeting will be immediately followed by the ANZAPPL Victoria Annual Lecture. The lecture will be delivered by Professor Ian Freckelton AO QC and is titled 'Iteration, incrementalism and the use of coercion in mental health treatment: priorities for effective mental health service reform.' Please click here for more information about the Annual Lecture and to register.

The 41st Annual General Meeting of the Association will take place at 4pm (AEDT) on Thursday 18 November 2021, via Zoom, during the 40th Congress. All active members of the Association are welcome to attend. Details for how to access the meeting will be sent to all members 24 hours prior. You will be able to attend the AGM even if you are not registered for the Congress. Active members of the Association can access the agenda and relevant forms here. Nomination and proxy voting forms must be returned to the Secretary by 4pm (AEDT) on Thursday 11 November 2021. Please email forms to secretary@anzappl.org.

The Annual General Meeting will be held at 6.30 pm on 11 November 2021 at Ayers House Conservatory, Adelaide. Active members of the Association can access relevant forms here. The AGM will be held alongside a seminar and dinner. Please click here to register your attendance. Nominations for office holder positions and membership of the management committee are now being received. We encourage new nominees interested in making a contribution to the Committeee. Nominations should be received by e-mail to the Secretary, at etelfer@lenkingchambers.com.au by 10 November 2021.

Join the Australian and New Zealand Association of Psychiatry, Psychology and Law for this engaging seminar and Annual General Meeting. Speakers Judge Liesl Chapman, District Court of South Australia (Chair) Dr Loraine Lim, Forensic Psychologist Dr Owen Haeney, Forensic Psychiatrist The Honourable John Sulan, QC Tickets All tickets include pre-dinner drinks, as well as a three course meal. Please click here for tickets. Members: $100 (use promo code 'MEMBER' at checkout) Non-members: $120 Students: $50 (use promo code 'STUDENT' at checkout) If you have any questions or dietary requirements, please email clerk@lenkingchambers.com.au or call 8210 6400.

This presentation concerns a meta-analysis by Professor Theresa Gannon and colleagues conducted. The purpose was to examine whether specialized psychological offense treatments for sex offending were associated with reductions in offense specific and non-offense specific recidivism. Staff and treatment program moderators were also explored. The review examined 44 programs. Over an average follow up time of 76.2 months, sexual recidivism was 9.5% for treated and 14.1% for untreated individuals. This represents an absolute decrease in recidivism of 4.6% and a relative decrease of 32.6%. Overall, treatment effectiveness appeared improved when programs received consistent hands-on input from a qualified, registered psychologist and facilitating staff were provided with clinical supervision. The findings show that such treatments are associated with robust reductions in offense specific and non-offense specific recidivism. Professor Gannon will discuss the implications for treatment providers with to regards staffing and program implementation variables for optimal recidivism reductions. Professor Theresa Gannon is Professor of Forensic Psychology and Director of the Centre of Research and Education in Forensic Psychology at the University of Kent. Theresa’s main research interests are in the areas of arson or fire-setting and sexual offending. Click here to access the meta-analysis. Click here to access the presentation slides.