16 hours | Self-Paced Online Training

The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDDHS) is pleased to offer on-demand juvenile competency evaluator training for mental health professionals who provide or are preparing to provide juvenile competency examinations. This training is open to mental health professionals required to complete a juvenile competency training program endorsed by MDHHS pursuant to MCL 712.1(o) and other qualified providers who are interested. 

MDHHS has contracted with the highly qualified experts at National Youth Screening and Assessment Partners (NYSAP) to provide comprehensive training on Evaluating Juveniles for Competency to Proceed in Delinquency Matters and hosted by the Palo Alto University CONCEPT platform, a subcontractor of NYSAP. This course requires 16 hours or more to complete. The training includes lessons taught by Ivan Kruh, PhD and Christina Riggs Romaine, PhD, from NYSAP, covering national and Michigan specifics in the following: foundational issues, like the relevant legal procedures and standards and the manner in which these legal standards can be translated into measurable forensic concepts, as well as a detailed discussion of conducting juvenile adjudicative competence evaluations from preparing to conduct the evaluation, through collecting data, interpreting data to form opinions, and communicating the results. All of this is discussed within the context of normal adolescent development and developmental psychopathology. The training includes activities intended to help transform learned information into applicable interviewing, record reviewing, data interpretation and report writing skills

Participants will receive a certificate of attendance for the successful completion of the full training curriculum. Continuing education credits are NOT provided for this training. The content of this training is similar to what has been offered live in years past. If you have successfully completed this training in the past, you are not required to complete this new on-demand training.

The training, as described above, is only for mental health professionals who provide juvenile competency examinations and those who are required to complete the program per MCL 712A.1(o).

Presented By

Partner, National Youth Screening and Assessment Partners Ivan Kruh, PhD

Ivan Kruh received his PhD in Clinical Psychology with a concentration in Psychology & Law from the University of Alabama in 1998 and subsequently completed fellowship training in forensic psychology through the University of Washington. For ten years, he was the Director of Juvenile Forensic Mental Health Services for Washington State and directed a Juvenile Forensic Psychology fellowship through the University of Washington. He has offered juvenile forensic mental health evaluations privately in Massachusetts, New York and Connecticut since 2012. Dr. Kruh specializes in the conduct and coordination of evaluations of juvenile competency to proceed (JCTP) and has co-authored two manuals with Thomas Grisso regarding creation of state standards for these evaluations. He has provided training, quality assurance and technical assistance for a variety of state agencies nationally since 2010, all aimed at supporting the day-to-day provision of high quality juvenile forensic mental health evaluations.

Associate Professor of Psychology at Wheaton College Christina L. Riggs Romaine, PhD

Dr. Christina L. Riggs Romaine received her Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology with a Forensic concentration from Drexel University. She worked as an evaluator, trainer, and service provider in pre- and post-adjudication juvenile justice facilities, before practicing as a full-time forensic evaluator in the MA Juvenile Court Clinics. Dr. Riggs Romaine is now an Associate Professor of Psychology at Wheaton College, MA where she continues to conduct research and provide clinical training on juvenile adjudicative competence. She is also an Associate with National Youth Screening and Assessment Partners (NYSAP) where she has consulted with and trained clinicians and juvenile justice stakeholders in 14 states.