Phoenix Forensic Mental Health Forum

April 19, 2010

12:30pm - 5pm
at
The Chapel of the Arizona State Hospital
2500 East Van Buren Street
Phoenix, Arizona 85008

Click here to view a slideshow of images from the last forum.

Sponsored by: The Office of Forensic Social Work at the Arizona State University and
The Forensic Social Work Team at the Arizona State Hospital
Supported by: The Arizona Chapter of the National Association of Social Workers (NASW)

The Spring forum will focus on three distinct areas of forensic practice. Mitigation in criminal sentencing processes, treatment of trauma in offenders in the criminal justice system, and reentry issues faced by mentally ill offenders in Pinal County.  This forum is directed at persons interested in learning about:

• the role of mental health professionals in providing context to individual criminal behavior. 
• how to implement trauma focused interventions with persons in the criminal justice system
• a collaborative strategy developed for responding to the specific problems and challenges mentally ill offenders face on release from detention facilities in Pinal County.

This forum will consist of 3 sessions and will provide 4 Continuing Education Units (CEUs) for free to professionals licensed by the Az Board of Behavioral Health Licensing. The forum will also include a vignette survey of the professional judgments of forum participants.  The credited sessions are:

Session  1:
Topic: Looking beyond a moment in time: Mitigation in the criminal justice system

Presenter:  Ken Murray is an Assistant Federal Public Defender in the Capital Habeas Unit for the Federal District of Arizona. He represents individuals seeking post-conviction review of death penalty sentences and has had extensive experience training death penalty staff and attorneys on issues involving mitigation of punishment.  Ken was a pilot in the United States Air Force, a member of the Public Defender Commission in Ohio, and a private attorney in a number of prestigious legal firms in Ohio.  Ken also has practiced as a masters-level psychologist at the Central Ohio Psychiatric Hospital and received a bachelor's of science in social welfare at the Ohio State University. He is currently a member of the Advisory Board of the Office of Forensic Social Work at the Arizona State University.   He is sought widely throughout the country as a speaker on issues involving the effective presentation of mitigation evidence in capital cases.

Session 2:
Topic: Trauma informed interventions for persons in the criminal justice system.

Presenter: Dominique Roe-Sepowitz is an Assistant Professor of Social Work at the Arizona State University School of Social Work.  Dr. Roe-Sepowitz has published widely on topics dealing with treating trauma in women who are in prisons or in community settings, as well as on topics dealing with the nexus between trauma and criminal history variables in male and female juvenile offenders.  She is also widely known for having co-developed a specialized protocol for treating prostitutes in community and in prison settings. She is currently assisting the Phoenix City Prosecutor's Office in the Evaluation of its prostitution diversion program and in assessing data from the Florida juvenile corrections system.

Session 3:
The "Jericho Principle": Confronting the challenges of offender reentry.

Presenter: Dianna Kalandros is the Director of the Justice Services Department at Superstition Mountain Mental Health Center (SMMHC), Inc.  She also has worked as the Mental Health Court Liaison for Pinal County and for a number of other agencies in Pinal and in Maricopa County that provide services to the seriously mentally ill.  She is the current chair of the Pinal County Reentry Task Force.   Her presentation will focus on describing the benefits and limitations of a strategy employed in Pinal County to respond to the increased numbers of individuals with serious mental disorders ending up in detention. 

We have limited space at the conference facility graciously provided by the Arizona State Hospital. We can only accept 150 applicants.  The sooner you register the better.   We will send confirmations and copies of the PowerPoint's in early April with directions and other relevant logistical information.  

 Click here to register.

If you have any additional questions, please feel free to contact Dr. Jose B. Ashford at         jose.ashford@asu.edu  or Laura Kandel, LCSW-C at KANDELL@azdhs.gov