A Stakeholders Guide to Competency to Proceed in Michigan's Juvenile Courts
Custom Training for the State of Michigan
Self-Paced Online Training
The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDDHS) is pleased to offer on-demand learning opportunities in reference to juvenile competency stakeholder information. Court personnel (including probation officers and managers, judges, referees, prosecutors, and attorneys), as well as advocates, behavioral health providers, MDHHS juvenile justice specialists and managers, and other MDHHS staff, are encouraged to complete the training. The training is designed to meet the specific needs of individuals in these different roles. The training for juvenile court personnel is about three hours in duration, and the training for other interested individuals is about two hours.
MDHHS has contracted with the highly qualified experts at National Youth Screening and Assessment Partners (NYSAP) to provide these trainings.
The training includes lessons taught by Ivan Kruh, Ph.D. and Christina Riggs Romaine, Ph.D., covering foundational issues, like the relevant legal procedures and standards, the manner in which these legal standards are translated into a structured assessment by Qualified Juvenile Forensic Mental Health Examiners and communicated in their reports, as well as a discussion of which youth should be considered for a juvenile competency evaluation. The training is intended to cultivate familiarity with the juvenile competency issue so that professionals are better equipped in situations in which they encounter it.
Presented By
Ivan Kruh, PhD
Dr. Ivan Kruh received his PhD in Clinical Psychology with a concentrated study of Forensic Psychology from the University of Alabama. For ten years, he was the Director of Juvenile Forensic Evaluations in Washington State and coordinated a post-doctoral fellowship in Juvenile Forensic Psychology at the University of Washington. In private practice, he conducts juvenile forensic evaluations and consults to state juvenile forensic evaluation systems. He is the Director of Juvenile Competency Services at National Youth Screening and Assessment Partners (NYSAP).
Christina L. Riggs Romaine, PhD
Dr. Christina L. Riggs Romaine received her Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology with a concentration in Forensic Psychology at Drexel University. She completed a post-doctoral fellowship in Forensic Psychology at the University of Massachusetts Medical School in collaboration with the Department of Youth Services, where she worked as an evaluator and service provider in pre- and post-adjudication facilities, before working as a full-time forensic evaluator in the MA Juvenile Court Clinics where she regularly conducted evaluations of adjudicative competence, risk, and mental state at the time of the offense.
Dr. Riggs Romaine is now an Associate Professor of Psychology at Wheaton College in MA and provides clinical training to clinical interns, post-doctoral clinicians, and experienced evaluators. Her research focuses on juveniles’ legal rights and risk-taking, with a focus on adjudicative competence. Her work has also examined bias and the implications of descriptive language about race and ethnicity in the context of evaluations for the courts.
She is also an Associate with National Youth Screening and Assessment Partners (NYSAP). In this role, Dr. Riggs Romaine has provided consultation and training to clinicians and juvenile justice stakeholders in 14 states on juvenile adjudicative competence, risk assessment, and quality implementation of evidence-based practices.