February 21, 2024
9:00 AM - 4:00 PM
Pacific
6 Hours
$350 Registration | $300 Early Registration (through February 7th)
Diana Lynn Barnes, PsyD, and Gina Wong, PhD present live professional training program Role of the Expert Witness in Establishing the Relationship Between Maternal Mental Illness & Criminally Charged Behaviour . This is the second program in the Maternal mental Health and Its Application to Forensics: Training the Expert Witness series.
This intermediate program is designed for mental health professionals interested in the intersection between maternal mental illness and the criminal justice system. Foundational theories relevant to motivations for maternal filicide are advanced. Utilizing actual forensic cases, training includes the clinical development of a maternal filicide case from initial contact through completion of the written report. Specific assessment and evaluation tools are summarized.
This program promotes a deeper understanding of the relationship between psychosocial history and future risk for maternal filicide. Attendees will become familiar with developing a reproductive road map in explaining a woman’s state of mind at the time of the commission of the filicidal act.
This program also focuses on the applied practice of principles specific to the field of maternal filicide. Didactic approaches are augmented by the inclusion of experiential learning through discussion of actual forensic cases.
Maternal mental Health and Its Application to Forensics: Training the Expert Witness
Series Overview:More psychiatric admissions are around the childbearing years than at any other time in the female life cycle. Women’s reproductive mental health is a highly specialized field of study with an increasingly critical role in the arena of criminal justice. This four-program series introduces participants to the foundations of maternal mental health as it applies to forensics and women who are criminally charged for harm to their child/children. Each program furthers the current empirically based understanding of maternal mental health forensics as well as promotes accepted standards and protocols in this emerging specialty. This series advances fundamental clinical, legal, and sociocultural perspectives in addition to encouraging critical dialogue in this evolving field. Basic diagnosis and assessment, the expert witness's role in evaluation and report writing, and advanced training in expert testimony is included. Case analysis and discussion are integral parts of the didactic learning inherent in this program.
Programs in this series include:
- Basic Diagnosis and Assessment of Maternal Mental Illness in the Forensic Arena
- Role of the Expert Witness in Establishing the Relationship Between Maternal Mental Illness & Criminally Charged Behaviour
- Advanced Issues in Maternal Mental Health Forensics
- Advanced Training in Maternal Mental Health Forensics and Courtroom Testimony
- Wong, G., & Parnham, G. J., (Eds.). Infanticide and filicide: Foundations in maternal mental health forensics . American Psychiatric Association Publishing.
- Recommended Resources Barnes, D. (Ed.). (2014). Women’s reproductive mental health across the lifespan
- Spinelli, M. (Ed.) (2003). Infanticide: Psychosocial and legal perspectives on mothers who kill. American Psychiatric Publishing.
Program Materials |
The materials listed below are not included with the program purchase and must be purchased separately.
Strongly Recommended |
Foundational Texts
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Intended Audience
This live program is intended for mental health and other allied professionals.

Experience Level
This live program is appropriate for beginner, intermediate, and advanced level clinicians.

CE / CPD Credit
APA, ASWB, CPA, NBCC: Click here for state and other regional board approvals.
Learning Objectives
Upon completion of this program you will be able to:
Describe the distinctions between the clinical role and the evaluator role
Describe various evidence-based theories pertaining to multiple motivations underlying maternal filicide
Identify the seminal research that lays the foundation for judicial thinking in forensic cases related to maternal filicide
Describe the neurobiological impact of complex and developmental trauma on the development of postpartum psychosis
Describe the steps involved from intake to completion of a written report
Describe the significance of psychosocial and psychiatric history as risk factors for maternal filicide
Explain the origins of a woman’s mental illness around childbearing through the creation of a reproductive roadmap
Describe assessment tools specific to women charged with childbearing-related crimes
Describe the process of document review to inform the clinical evaluation
Identify the integral components of a thorough report

Live Event Policy
Event Communications
All program information will be available on your dashboard after registration. When registering, use an email that is active and that you check regularly. We are not responsible for communications not being received; if you do not add caps@paloaltou.edu to your email safe sender list, our emails are likely to end up in your spam or junk folders.
Cancellation Policy
Have a sudden change of plans and are unable to attend live? No worries, you will be given access to the on-oemand version of the program once available.
Event Conduct
Please conduct yourself in a professional manner throughout the event. Our goal is to make this as interactive an experience as possible for all who attend. We reserve the right to remove any participants who are disruptive or who act unprofessionally.
Develop a Specialty Area of Practice
Transforming mental health professionals into experts
Expert Instructors
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CE Credit
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Convenience & Flexibility
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