Dr Amanda McFadden1
1Beam Limited, Mt Albert, New Zealand
Biography:
Amanda McFadden is based in Auckland, New Zealand. She works in private practice, holding the clinical psychologist and neuropsychologist scopes of practice. She recently completed a Doctorate of Health Science at the Auckland University of Technology. Amanda works as an expert witness within several jurisdictions of the New Zealand's justice system. Her areas of expertise and interest include the nexus between neurodevelopmental issues and offending, risk assessment, immigration and protection issues, and complex trauma.
Abstract:
The primary aim of New Zealand’s Intellectual Disability (Compulsory Care and Rehabilitation) Act 2003 is to provide safe and appropriate alternatives to prison for people with intellectual disability who are charged with, or convicted of, an offence. People subject to this Act are called care recipients. Specialist assessors are clinical psychologists and forensic psychiatrists who assist the Court to make decisions about compulsory care. This research provides valuable insights into how 15 specialist assessors understand, interpret, and integrate human rights perspectives within their practice. Three distinct perspectives were revealed and located along the spectrum of “comfortable acceptance”, “uncomfortable engagement”, and “aware but not engaged”. The study found that specialist assessors want to take a more active and considered role in setting the parameters of their human rights practice. Globally, the adequacy of professional and disciplinary training on human rights is being scrutinised (Hagenaars & Thompson, 2020; Plavsic et al., 2020). Further, the relationship between practice values, ethical codes, and legalistic human rights frameworks is energetically debated (Allan, 2013; Gauthier, 2020; Hagenaars & Thompson, 2020; Nowak & Zenz, 2020). Specialist assessors are well-placed to engage in this debate about the role of human rights in psychological and psychiatric practice. They are at the sharp end of forensic practice—assessing a complex group of people with intellectual disability who are in coercive care, in some cases, for many years. This study contributes to this burgeoning international scholarship by expanding this discussion to a novel, applied forensic context.