Writing Forensic Reports: A Guide for Mental Health Professionals

Despite the extensive technical literature on forensic mental health, there is a lack of practical guidebooks dedicated to generating clear and persuasive forensic mental health reports. To address this dearth of writing guides, Greenfield and Gotsschalk present a practical handbook to assist mental health professionals at all levels of career development in their effective production of forensic reports.

This practical and comprehensive guidebook provides a format for forensic reports, contains multiple examples of full and partial forensic reports, and is organized in a user-friendly, how-to style, to accomplish its goal. Key features:

• Full-length report samples with step-by-step guides explaining how each section of the report is done
• Extensive reference lists and appendices for further information and research
• Includes basic information about the legal and clinical bases for discussing forensic issues and for writing effective reports
• Discusses how to apply reports to forensic settings

Despite the extensive technical literature on forensic mental health, there is a lack of practical guidebooks dedicated to generating clear and persuasive forensic mental health reports. Greenfield and Gottschalk present this practical handbook to address this critical need.

This comprehensive guide outlines the proper format for forensic reports, contains multiple examples of full and partial reports, and is organized in a user-friendly, "how-to" style to accomplish its goal. The case overviews of full criminal reports, full civil reports, and civil summaries cover important topics such as domestic violence, malpractice, personal injury, malingering, and more.

Key features:

• Full-length report samples with step-by-step guidelines explaining how each section of the report is done

• Designed to assist the novice, trainee, and seasoned forensic mental health practitioner

• Extensive commentaries and discussions following each case overview to convey how the report served to help resolve its case

• Extensive reference lists and appendices containing key terms, additional journals and periodicals, Internet resources, and assessment tools

Daniel P. Greenfield, MD, MPH, MS, is an attending physician and Clinical Professor, at NJ Neuroscience Institute at JFK Medical Center, Seton Hall- School of Graduate Medical Education, and Montefiore Medical Center. Dr.Greenfield specializes in general, forensic and consulting psychiatry, and addiction medicine and has been in private practice since 1980. . He has written nearly 100 articles in professional journals including J. Psychiatry and Law, Consulting to Management, J. Forensic Psychiatry, American J. of Forensic Psychology; book author PRESCRIPTION DRUG ABUSE AND DEPENDENCE: How Prescription Drug Abuse Contributes to the Drug Abuse Epidemic, Charles C. Thomas, 1995; over 15 book chapter contributions including Encyclopedia of Criminology and Deviant Behavior (T&F: 2000), and Mental and Emotional Litigation in Employment Law (BNA Books, 2006). He is the current book review editor for The Journal of Psychiatry and the Law; has held multiple appointments and consultantships notably the Governor's Task force for the Review of the Criminally Insane (NJ and the Committee on Psychiatric Reports and Testimony of the Administrative Office of the Courts (NJ). Dr. Greenfield is listed in the Guide to America's Top Psychiatrists (2004-present) and serves as an active member of American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law, American Society of Addiction Medicine, American College of Forensic Examiners, American Association for the History of medicine (served as President, 2002-2004), and the Association for the Treatment of Sexual Abusers (ATSA)

Jack A. Gottschalk, MA, MSM, JD, in addition to his professional law career, and military career (Member, National Defense Executive Reserve, assigned to special staffs (law and public affairs), Federal Emergency Management Agency (1985-1988), his list of full-length publications include:

Firefighting, New York, NY: DK Publishing Co., Inc. /Penguin Group Inc., September 2002. New York Times Non-Fiction Best Seller for six weeks; Crisis Management, Oxford, UK: Capstone Publishing Ltd., a Division of John Wiley, Inc., 2002; Jolly Roger with an Uzi, (with Brian Flanagan), Annapolis, MD: US Naval Institute Press, 2000;
Directory of International Business, Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Salem Press Inc., 1994;
Crisis Response: Inside Stories of Managing Crisis Under Siege, Author/Editor, Detroit, MI: Gale Research, Inc., 1993; The Global Trade and Investment Handbook, Chicago, IL: Probes Publishing Co., Inc. (now McGraw-Hill, Inc.), 1993; Promoting Your Professional Practice, Ridgefield, CT: Round Lake Publishing Co., Inc., 1992; Managing a Law Firm for Survival, (with Robert J. Small, Ph.D), Philadelphia, PA: American Law Institute, 1992; Marketing and Public Relations for Lawyers, New Brunswick, NJ: New Jersey Institute for Continuing Legal Education, 1990.