Eligible Clinicians:
Licensed Clinical Social Workers; PhD Psychologists; Psychiatrists; Psychiatric Nurse Practitioners; non-Psychiatrist MDs with significant experience conducting forensic asylum evaluations. As a note, these requirements are based entirely on MSHRP’s experience with IJ’s acceptance of affidavits. If someone who is not eligible reaches out to the program, just politely inform them that we are grateful for their interest, but the judges in the immigration courts where we work have not accepted certain degree types in the past.
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NOTE:
Psychiatry residents are eligible to conduct evaluations under the supervision of an attending psychiatrist. If the resident has significant prior experience, we defer to the attending psychiatrist to determine the appropriate level of supervision (e.g. signing off on the affidavit, being physically present, being available in real-time for questions). Important things to note about residents: 1) the attending supervisor must always be the one to sign off on the evaluation; 2) the attorney must be aware and comfortable with the set up; 3) the attending AND resident both need to be aware of and comfortable with relevant licensure consideration.
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NOTE:
We have one licensed professional counselor in our network. We have discussed this topic in the past because in many areas of the country (e.g. Texas), LPCs are commonly involved in writing affidavits. If an experienced LPC reaches out to our network, would suggest asking faculty on a case-by-case basis.
Process for onboarding new evaluators:
All new evaluators must fill out the recruitment form. Its responses are documented in this sheet. This sheet should be checked on a biweekly basis, unless you have actively done outreach to new clinicians (in which case it should be checked more frequently).
Once someone has filled out the recruitment form, input their information into the Telephonic Provider Directory. It is automated such that if you put in an email address, the form will auto-populate with information from their response to the recruitment form. (Caution: this may stop working if you re-organize the Drive. If in the future something stops working in this or other tools, check that someone hasn’t moved reference sheets).
Send providers the onboarding instructions. These instructions/requirements depend on their level of prior training (specific details below). ####As they complete specific parts of the training and you send them things, make sure to document this in the telephonic directory. Due to some of the legal considerations, it’s critical that this document is up to date and accurate!####
Evaluators with prior forensic experience (e.g. experience both attending a training and conducting forensic evaluations of asylum seekers) need to complete the following next steps. This email outlines these steps and can serve as a template.
Watch the telephonic training module.
Review roles & responsibilities document
Upload their CV, professional license, and a sample redacted evaluation [Note: When this sample affidavit is uploaded, you should screen it to make sure that it actually is a relevant affidavit (since there are other forms of forensic evaluation in psychiatry in general), then share it with Dr. Katz and Dr. Singer to review. This is the way we are quality checking the affidavits and making sure they fit with our program. Specific feedback and suggestions should be passed along to evaluators, with any questions about how to frame appropriately/politely deferring to faculty].
Note:
that forensic evaluators with prior experience do not need to shadow, but may want to shadow a telephonic evaluation before they began conducting remote evaluations independently. In that case, please arrange per the clinician’s preference.
Note:
Any experienced NYC-based MSHRP evaluator is welcome to join the remote evaluation network. They should follow all steps above except for sending a sample redacted affidavit for review.
Evaluators without forensic experience:
- Need to attend a general forensic asylum training. This can be the annual MSHRP training, or any other PHR affiliated training. This website is continuously updated with new trainings, and should be sent to clinicians waiting for training (particularly as new training arise in their region, or webinar/online trainings are made available).
Need to (per instructions above to experienced clinicians): watch the telephonic module; upload their CV and professional licenses to Box; review roles and responsibilities.
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Need to shadow an experienced mentor clinician.
It is important that, for evaluations they are shadowing, new clinicians are involved in preparing the first draft of the affidavit for the mentor clinician’s review. All expectations (deadlines, timelines, division of responsibility) should be made clear to mentor and shadowing clinicians in advance. Some clinicians will want to shadow multiple evaluations before they are ready on their own -- this is fine, and we defer to clinicians’ comfort. After a new clinician has shadowed and prepared an affidavit under supervision, it is a good idea to check in with the mentor and make sure they feel the new clinician’s draft was high quality.
As soon as all onboarding requirements are complete [signaled in the Telephonic Directory as ‘green’ highlighted], the evaluator is ready to accept cases!