Evaluating Juveniles for Competency to Proceed in Delinquency Matters
Custom Training for the State of Michigan
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
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.