This study assessed performance on a screening test of competency to consent to treatment, the Hopkins Competency Assessment Test (HCAT), in a population diagnosed with chronic mental illness, and examined the relationship between HCAT performance and functional status at discharge. We hypothesized that patients with chronic mental illness who failed the HCAT would also have problems in perform...

Psychotropic medications are often crucial in restoring criminal defendants to competency to stand trial. However, some defendants committed for competency evaluations or restoration refuse medications. Thus, psychiatric professionals who work in jails and secure hospitals, and even in community mental health settings, may encounter questions about involuntarily medicating patients who are inco...

AIMS This survey evaluated the experiences of mental health nurses who had undergone assessment of their competence in the administration of medicines using established assessment frameworks. BACKGROUND Medicines management activities have at times been widely criticized. Joint collaborations between Higher Education Authorities and the National Health Service in education and training can st...

82 Sandra Lovell is a Chartered Occupational Psychologist at ERM, UK and has worked across numerous high hazard industries including mining, manufacturing and oil & gas. She specialises in organisational culture and safety, human factors in system design, performance assessment & development in safety critical tasks and training systems. She has trained leaders in safety and in assessing compet...

BACKGROUND Cultural competency is now a core requirement for mental health professionals working with culturally diverse patient groups. Cultural competency training may improve the quality of mental health care for ethnic groups. METHODS A systematic review that included evaluated models of professional education or service delivery. RESULTS Of 109 potential papers, only 9 included an eval...

Clinical faculty often struggle to design competency demonstrations that promote quality learning experiences. A nursing program in Oregon combined mental health and community health nursing practica and required well-planned, integrated competency demonstrations. This requirement became the impetus for students to promote the health of clients and learn clinical concepts that are difficult to ...

A 15-item questionnaire used to evaluate competency to consent to psychiatric hospitalization was validated using a blind forensic psychiatric interview. The statistical correlation was excellent with p < .001. The questionnaire also correlated highly with the Mini-Mental State exam (p < .05), the Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale (p < .05), and the Weschler Adult Intelligence Scale-Revised vocabu...

Forensic evaluators often assess patients who lack insight into their mental illnesses. This lack of insight can have a significant impact on the defendant's ability to make legal strategy decisions that rely on their acceptance of their mental illness. In this article, the relationship between refusing an insanity plea and competency to stand trial will be explored in the context of defendants...