2021 Ohio Forensic Directors Association Conference
Thursday, April 29th & Friday, April 30th, 2021
Thursday, April 29th & Friday, April 30th, 2021
This year we are pleased to bring back the two-day conference format, albeit virtually and the poster presentations. The full-day program will be on April 29th and will include the Makey-Sokolov Poster Presentations. The half-day program will be on April 30th.
The conference will be virtual and will have excellent forensic mental health – legal continuing education opportunities that you have come to expect. This program is designed to provide education for those professionals in Ohio who are affiliated with the accredited forensic evaluation centers but anyone with a professional interest in this field is invited.
April 29th, 2021 | 9:30am - 5:00pm EST (6 CE hours)
Pharmacology and Mental State Evaluations presented by Maureen Reardon, PhD and Shawn K. Acheson, PhD.
Recreational drugs are common in criminal activity and can exert potent effects on cognition, affect, and behavioral control. This workshop provides an introduction to the neuropsychopharmacology of recreational drugs of abuse (e.g., alcohol, sedatives, stimulants, opiates, and hallucinogens), with particular emphasis on alcohol and stimulants given their ubiquity in criminal activity. First discussed are the effects of various substances, and combinations thereof, on mental state. Next, strategies for disentangling the effects of various substances from underlying mental conditions will be provided. Lastly, the relevance of substance-related altered mental states to evaluations of criminal responsibility in Ohio are discussed and illustrated via case vignettes.
April 30th, 2021 | 8:30am - 12:30pm (4 CE hours)
Practical Strategies & Ethical Considerations for Formulating Sanity Opinions presented by Maureen Reardon, PhD.
The second workshop will build upon Day 1 by identifying the essential data sources and methods of evaluating a defendant’s understanding of the wrongfulness of the alleged acts, while highlighting relevant ethical considerations from referral, to evaluation, to testimony.