Just so we’re clear… for all you parents who are going to get a forensic custody evaluation for $20,000 – $40,000, you can add a surcharge of an additional $10,000 for a second-opinion review by Dr. Childress to correct the misguided errors in the forensic custody evaluation.
AND… I’m going to recommend that your family get a written treatment plan, and for that you’ll need a diagnosis… which the forensic custody evaluation did not provide. Therefore, you will need to get a clinical diagnostic assessment of the attachment-related pathology in your family for about $2,500 – $5,000 with tele-health second opinion.
Hmm, I have an idea… why don’t we skip the forensic custody evaluation and the second-opinion analysis of it from Dr. Childress and save all that money… and START with a clinical diagnostic assessment of the attachment pathology in your family.
You need a treatment plan. A treatment plan requires a diagnosis, the treatment for cancer is different than the treatment for diabetes. You need a clinical diagnostic assessment to return a diagnosis to guide the development of a written treatment plan.
So let’s do that. Let’s get a diagnostic assessment to see what the problem is, then get a written treatment plan to fix whatever the problem is.
We must first diagnose what the pathology is before we know how to treat it. We must first identify what the problem is before we know how to fix it.
Diagnosis = identify
Pathology = problem
Treatment = fix it
Forensic psychology is a failed experiment in service delivery to a vulnerable population. Clinical psychology needs to return. They will refuse, it’s too dangerous. We need to make it safe for them to return.
That’s my role. We start by establishing baseline standard of practice to which ALL mental health professionals can be held accountable.
All psychologists should be applying EXACTLY the same information (the best), to reach EXACTLY the same conclusions (accurate), and provide EXACTLY the same recommendations (effective).
Is there a shared persecutory delusion? What’s the answer? If not, why not? Is the belief system true?
Is there psychological abuse of the child (DSM-5 V995.51)? If not, why not? What more would need to happen for it to become Child Psychological Abuse (V995.51)?
Is there psychological and emotional abuse of the parent using the child as the weapon (DSM-5 V995.82)? If not, why not? What more would need to happen for it to become Spouse or Partner Abuse, Psychological?
Family law attorneys will need to establish the path through the court system – treatment not custody – we want a written treatment plan… for that we need a diagnostic risk assessment for possible child abuse.
Clinical psychologists need to return – treatment not custody. You will want DBT therapy (Linehan) for it’s structure and containment of personality disorder pathology, and you will want the attachment therapy of EFT (Johnson) to inform the court-adapted DBT family therapy.
Market demand. Supply follows money. You’re the solution. You just needed to be given a choice – forensic or clinical – custody or treatment.
Choose treatment to fix things. Forensic psychology fixes nothing – ever. Ask them. Do you diagnose things? No. Do you treat things? No. What do you do? They do forensic custody evaluations for $20,000 to $40,000 put an added Dr. Childress second-opinion corrective surcharge.
I suggest you don’t want one of those. I suggest you want a clinical diagnostic risk assessment – is there a shared persecutory delusion (Walters & Friedlander, 2016; Family Court Review)?
The assessment for a delusional thought disorder is a Mental Status Exam of thought and perception. Do they now how to conduct one? Dr. Childress does. Perhaps they should consult with Dr. Childress.
From Improving Diagnosis: “Clinicians may refer to or consult with other clinicians (formally or informally) to seek additional expertise about a patient’s health problem. The consult may help to confirm or reject the working diagnosis or may provide information on potential treatment options.” (Improving Diagnosis in Healthcare, 2015)
From Improving Diagnosis: “Clinicians can also recommend that the patient seek a second opinion from another clinician to verify their impressions of an uncertain diagnosis or if they believe that this would be helpful to the patient.” (Improving Diagnosis in Healthcare, 2015)
See. Get a second opinion.
Craig Childress, Psy.D.
Clinical Psychologist, PSY 18857
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