Dr Joseph Allan Sakdalan1, M Melissa Strang2
1Forensicare, Clifton Hill, Australia, 2Cairnmillar Institute, Hawthorn East, Australia
Biography:
Dr Joseph Sakdalan is an AHPRA and NZ Registered Psychologist with endorsements in clinical psychology, counselling psychology and clinical neuropsychology. He has more than 25 years of clinical experience providing assessment and treatment of clients with complex presentations. Joseph is a Principal Psychologist for Court Reports at Forensicare and a Lecturer in Clinical Psychology at The Cairnmillar Institute in Melbourne, Australia. Dr Sakdalan has provided training on utilising a neurodiversity-affirming approach to assessing and treating autistic and ADHD clients with co-occurring and co-morbid conditions in community and forensic settings.
Melissa Strang is a registered psychologist and Doctor of Psychology (Clinical) candidate at The Cairnmillar Institute. She completed her honours research at Deakin University in the Healthy Autistic Life Lab. Melissa’s doctoral research explores neurodiversity-affirming practice and adapted treatment, with a particular focus on the presentation of complex co-occurring conditions in neurodivergent individuals. She has experience providing evidence-based therapy and assessments across the lifespan in private practice, public health, and not-for-profit settings. Melissa has worked with a broad range of complex mental health presentations, including mood, anxiety, and trauma-related disorders.
Mental health care professionals have voiced concerns about their competency in effectively working with autistic clients, reporting only moderate levels of autism knowledge and self-efficacy, and often lacking appropriate training (Corden et al., 2022; Linaso et al., 2023).
Despite the requirement for further research to understand the overrepresentation of Autistic and ADHD individuals within the criminal justice system (Hofvander et al., 2023; Anns et al., 2023), research shows that treatment within the criminal justice system needs to be adapted to meet the specific needs of neurodivergent clients (Hofvander et al., 2023). Therefore, it is essential that mental health care professionals can identify and work effectively with autistic and ADHD adults using a more neurodiversity-affirming approach to inform assessment and formulation, treatment recommendations, identification of treatment targets, and the delivery of treatment in a way that responds to the unique needs of neurodivergent clients in forensic settings.
This paper will explore the knowledge, attitudes, perceptions, confidence, and neurodiversity-affirming (NDA) adaptations used by forensic mental health clinicians when assessing and treating neurodivergent individuals in forensic settings. A pre- and post-survey will be conducted to evaluate any improvement in the clinicians’ knowledge, perceptions, and confidence following a neurodiversity-affirming training session for forensic clients and whether these can be sustained for a period of time after completing the training. It is envisaged that the study outcomes will provide an impetus for the need to provide NDA training to forensic mental health clinicians.