Teaching forensic psychiatry in Europe

Forensic psychiatry was long regarded as sufficiently defined by the laws of a country to be restricted by national boundaries in all but a few areas. European Union (EU) employment rights and travel facilities have changed that within the EU.

The goal of this research is to explore the role and development of a network of teachers and trainees in forensic psychiatry.

European Union countries differ widely in the extent to which they recognise forensic psychiatry as a specialty and thus also in the amount of training clinicians receive before they present themselves as expert witnesses in court, or develop or run services, or manage and treat individual offender patients. Nevertheless, a summer seminar for practicing clinicians, who also present evidence to court and for bodies considering discharge of potentially dangerous patients, has proved a useful forum for joint 'European learning'. Participants have left with a sense of improved understanding of their own law and practices as well as new perspectives on what works for offenders with mental disorder.