Premium
Mental health consultation for a clinical law training program
Author(s) -
Price Susan,
McCreary Charles
Publication year - 1976
Publication title -
journal of community psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.585
H-Index - 86
eISSN - 1520-6629
pISSN - 0090-4392
DOI - 10.1002/1520-6629(197604)4:2<168::aid-jcop2290040212>3.0.co;2-o
Subject(s) - mental health , interview , psychology , legal psychology , medical education , mental health law , applied psychology , psychotherapist , social psychology , law , medicine , political science
Interaction between mental health professionals and the legal system has been essentially unproductive. Psychologists have traditionally been limited to two basic roles: (1) expert witnesses and (2) therapists for offenders. This paper describes a mental health consultation program which attempted to develop an innovative and productive relationship between psychologists and the legal system. The goal of the consultation was to increase the ability of law students to be more sensitive and responsive to their clients' complex psychological‐social problems. The consultation focused on enhancing the skills of law professors to teach basic interviewing techniques and to integrate these techniques into a model for legal counseling which is more responsive to the clients' total needs. Significant differences between legal and psychological counseling are described, and areas for future consultation by community psychologists are identified.