Webinars Available for Purchase
Family Law Subpoenas: A Guide For Mental Health Professionals
Your heart starts to race. The panic kicks in. Your stomach sinks. Someone mentioned the S word... Subpoena.
This 110-minute webinar will take you through everything a mental health professional needs to know about family law subpoenas. Learn about the three types of family law subpoena, the processes and procedures to follow when you receive a subpoena, and hear answers to the most commonly asked questions. For example, the presenters will discuss whether it is ever allowable to ignore a subpoena, why we only receive $25, whether and how to object to a subpoena, and whether you can object to a subpoena if you believe it is a "fishing expedition", will breach copyright laws (e.g, WAIS, WISC etc), cause risk to the patient, harm the therapeutic relationship, or if you believe the file contents are irrelevant or unhelpful to the legal issue. The presenters will also discuss what happens to the submitted materials, such as where they are kept, who can view them, whether they can be copied, and what lawyers might be looking for in your file.
This webinar aims to demystify family law subpoenas to reduce clinician anxiety and improve compliance with our legal obligations.
About the presenters
Sarah Minnery is a Brisbane Barrister in private practice and has worked as both a Solicitor and Barrister predominantly in family law for over 20 years. She was called to the Bar in July 2013. Prior to joining the Queensland Bar, Sarah worked in national, mid-tier and boutique family law firms as a Solicitor for over 10 years including as a family law partner. Sarah practices in all areas of family law with a particular interest in complex financial matters. She holds a Bachelor of Laws (Hons) (QUT), Bachelor of Business (Accountancy) (QUT) and Masters of Laws (UQ). Sarah was an Accredited Family Law Specialist from 2009 until 30 June 2023 when the specialist accreditation scheme was closed to barristers. She has presented numerous papers and publications including contributions to CCH’s Australian Master Family Law Guide and CCH’s Family Law looseleaf service.
Dr Grant Blake is a Clinical Psychologist in private practice on the Sunshine Coast. He is a trauma therapist who also provides independent expert witness evidence to the courts for a variety of medicolegal issues. He has a particular interest in supporting psychologists who are anxious about navigating the legal systems they might be drawn into.
Purchase Here
Cost: $165 (gst incl)
Should i wait for a subpoena? Managing client and third party requests for confidential client information
Health professionals collect confidential information about their patients to inform their treatment planning. So what do you do when a lawyer or insurance worker emails you a signed consent form for the patient's file? Do you give the notes? Do you confirm consent - but what does consent look like when you can't anticipate all the possible outcomes of handing over a client file? Do you offer a report instead? Are you allowed to offer a report instead? What if you don't write reports? Do you have a right to decline information - if so, how? Should you wait for a subpoena? How do you object to a subpoena? Will you die from anxiety if you receive a subpoena?
Within psychology at least, many clinicians are anxious about what information they can share with a client, their lawyer, the lawyer for 'the other side,'' and insurer etc. Client-initiated and third-party requests for information can often feel like an ethical minefield. However, there is clear guidance on what you must and must not do, how to do it, and how quickly it needs to be done. Once you know the basics of the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth), the catastrophising quickly starts to disappear and the ethical decision making process becomes simple.
In this 2 hour and 15 minute recorded webinar, I will take you through the essentials of how to respond to requests for confidential client information. We will:
Review our legal obligations when information requests are made by patients and third parties for primary and non-primary purposes.
Examine when to offer a report instead of the file, when to decline information altogether, and how to do these lawfully and ethically.
Examine the level of risk (e.g., suicide, violence) that may be required to refuse access to information.
Develop policies to handle information requests when on extended leave (e.g., parental leave) or if you are unavailable for other reasons.
Learn how to comply with a subpoena, notice to produce, and/or search warrant.
Know when and how to object to a subpoena or request protection of the information provided.
Briefly discuss what should and should not be included in patient case notes.
The content of this workshop is aimed at clinicians in private practice and non-government organisations. Hospitals and state-regulated health services have additional regulations that go beyond the scope of this presentation. Any clinician required to abide by the Privacy Act can register (e.g., psychologist, psychiatrist, social worker, occupational therapist etc).
Purchase Here
Cost: $165 (gst incl)
Target Audience
This workshop is for health practitioners required to abide by the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth). This includes psychologists, psychiatrists, occupational therapists, social workers, counsellors and many other types of professional who collect and store health information. We will not cover state specific health information Acts, such as those that regulate hospitals and state health services.
Examples of Prior Training
Report Writing Skills for Treating Psychologists
As treating psychologists, we are often unaware of what the courts, lawyers, and insurance companies are looking for when they request a treatment report. Many psychologists are anxious that they could be called to give oral evidence, that they will be underpaid, or that they lack the requisite skills to write a ‘good’ report. In fact, it’s not uncommon for psychologists to avoid report writing altogether, or to provide too much information to avoid the risk of not answering the questions clearly. Such practices pose a myriad of legal and ethical issues.
However, report writing is relatively simple once you know a proper report structure, know how to manage requests for information, and know what happens to your report once it leaves your hands. Reports writing skills for family law, child safety, criminal law, compensation and the NDIS will be reviewed.
This 1-day workshop will take you through the report writing process from start to finish. This includes:
Responding to requests for information;
Consent and ethics;
Quotes and payments;
Recognising questions you can and cannot answer as the treating psychologist;
Succinctness and oversharing;
Creating and revising templates; and,
Proof reading.
The signs of a good and not-so-good report will be outlined, and the dos and don’ts of report writing will be listed. This workshop will be highly interactive. Participants will edit template reports to an appropriate standard based on the checklists and recommendations provided to you. These templates are then kept by participants for use in their practice.
Want to see this course booked again? Get in touch
Malingering Theory and Practical Skills
Are you a good malingerer? Do you like prizes? Do you ever wish you could play with a psychometric test before purchasing it? Well, this is the workshop for you….
Symptom validity is rarely assessed in Australia, yet feigning is common in treatment and assessment settings. Certain referrals, such as for clients with a compensation claim, a criminal charge, personality problems, very low self-efficacy, or requesting access to restricted medications (e.g., ADHD), increases the likelihood of feigned symptoms. Clinical opinions not informed by standardised tests are subject to confirmation and falsification biases, which may make some of these opinions more personal than scientific.
A barrier to improved practice on this topic is that there is little guidance on how to find, select, purchase, administer and interpret tests of feigned mental illness and cognitive impairment. This workshop will present seven feigning tests that may be used to assess feigned PTSD, depression, anxiety, psychosis, and memory problems. All tests are suitable for adults, and some tests are suitable for children too. Test data will be integrated to discriminate between intentional and unintentional feigning, and case studies will be explored to discriminate between factitious disorders, partial malingering, and full malingering.
This 2-day workshop will be fun and interactive. Participants will be provided opportunities to outwit the malingering tests for prizes, and live demonstrations of integrating multiple tests into a simple assessment battery will be undertaken.
Several test publishers have offered special discounts to attendees who purchase their test/s after the workshop. Please note that Dr Blake receives no benefit for presenting the selected tests – these tests are simply among his favourites.
It is intended that participants will:
Understand the correct and incorrect terminologies to use when commenting upon symptom validity (e.g., “poor effort” is typically an incorrect term).
Understand the frequency with which therapeutic and assessment clients are dishonest about their symptoms.
Understand symptom validity detection methods.
Practice administering and scoring tests for feigned PTSD, depression and anxiety, memory problems, cognitive impairment, and psychosis. Please contact us to know the test names. They are not disclosed here for test privacy reasons.
Practice giving feedback to a treatment client about the results and treatment plan.
Want to see this course booked again? Get in touch
evaluating adhd: cognition and malingering
The last few years have seen an explosion in referrals for ADHD assessments. Problematically, ADHD is a complex diagnosis heavily reliant upon self-report data with subjective, and often unrealistic, notions of what is normal and abnormal attention. Clients are often well versed about ADHD when they attend their appointments. This can cause some clients to misunderstand or unintentionally misconstrue their symptoms,whereas others take the opportunity to feign ADHD. After all, restricted stimulant medications are highly sought after for recreational use, weight management, to improve work/study performance, or sales and profit. It’s not uncommon for medicos to decline ADHD assessments in avoidance of a potential investigation for over-prescribing stimulant medications.
This workshop presents a multidisciplinary model of ADHD assessment using the Test of Variables of Attention (T.O.V.A.), self-report measures, and tests of feigning. The T.O.V.A. is a standardised, computerised test of visual and auditory attention for people aged 4+. The objective is to demonstrate how psychologists can contribute to a multidisciplinary model of ADHD assessment and diagnosis, and to upskill practitioners on how to assess attention and feigning. This workshop is open to psychologists, psychiatrists and paediatricians. A brief attention and feigning assessment battery will be demonstrated live to show clinicians how data can be quickly collected and interpreted to assist the diagnosing professional. Guidance on how to undertake comprehensive ADHD evaluations will be provided. The ability to test medication effectiveness will also be demonstrated.
Want to see this course booked again? Get in touch
Workplace Wellbeing and Training
Grant’s workplace workshops have been requested by a diverse range of NGOs, public and private health agencies, law firms, and businesses. He has been a keynote speaker at numerous conferences and provides case consultation on a variety of clinical and forensic matters in the public and private sectors.
The workplace programs aim to make psychological theory accessible and interesting. Grant uses practical activities to demonstrate key concepts, then teaches attendees specific techniques to monitor and improve their wellbeing. The goal of these workshops is to assist staff in recognising and responding to their own mental health needs, and to equip management with a common skillset so they can be appropriately supportive.
The professional learning seminars aim to provide a critical review of research and practice on a given topic, then introduce strategies to incorporate best practice into your workplace. These seminars may address the assessment and treatment of clinical presentations, problematic behaviour (e.g., stalking, violence), or strategies to improve forensic report writing.
Below is a list of some workshops Grant has run.
Mental health check-ups
No one is immune to stress and mental health difficulties. In fact, approximately 45% of the Australian population will meet the diagnostic criteria for at least 1 mental health condition in their lifetime. Grant’s tailored workshops teach participants to recognise and self-monitor the signs of stress and common problems, such as workplace burnout, trauma, depression and anxiety.
MENTAL HEALTH FOR NURSES
Nursing can be an equally rewarding and challenging career. From the effects of shift-work, to traumatic exposure, to being a politicised area, nurses face unique challenges that necessitate the investment in self-care. These workshops introduce self-assessment strategies to monitor health and wellbeing, then provides practical techniques to cope with the unique demands of working in the health industry.
MENTAL HEALTH FOR LAWYERS
The Australian legal profession features some of the highest rates of depression and suicidal ideation in the country. The combative nature of litigation, public wins and losses, drinking culture, and hierarchical structure of firms can make being a lawyer a physically, emotionally and psychologically exhausting career path. This workshop addresses the unique mental health needs of lawyers.
EFFECTIVE PTSD TREATMENTS
Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a complex mental health condition characterised by diverse and severe symptoms. These brief seminars provide a summary of the evidence base behind different psychological and pharmacological treatments for PTSD, and a description of the ‘active’ treatment ingredients from different trauma focussed treatments. These seminars are typically requested by general practitioners and mental health organisations wanting to know more about referral pathways and treatment efficacy.
SEXUAL HARASSMENT
Sexual harassment in the workplace is a complex, potentially litigious issue that affects everyone. This practical workshop explains the social psychology of harassment and equips participants to identify harassment typologies. Participants are then tasked with developing strategies specific to their workplace to prevent and respond to sexual harassment. Emphasis is placed on addressing the source of harassment as prevention, rather than reactive complaint-focussed policies and procedures.
Personality disorders
Assessment, diagnosis and intervention for personality disorders is complex and labour intensive. These workshops provide a critical review of assessment procedures for diagnosing personality disorders, differential diagnosis tasks, and identification of treatment targets. Where clients may be involved with family or criminal law proceedings, advice on report writing will be provided, in addition to recommendations, common boundary issues, and appropriate responses to report questions.
Workplace Communication
The workplace communication workshops introduce practical strategies to determine how assertively a person should make a request or refusal, what to say when making a request or refusal, and responding to intense emotion and conflict when it occurs. Strategies to improve empathic communication can also be addressed.
Workplace Cohesion & Empathy
Workplaces are social environments, so understanding the fundamentals of social psychology can help overcome the unique challenges in a workplace. These workshops aim to enhance empathy among team members, improve effective teamwork, reduce Groupthink, improve communication and reduce conflict.
fundamentals of risk assessment
Risk assessment is complex and requires special knowledge of developmental psychology, pathways to offending, desistence, and the subtleties of certain behaviours. Topics of interest may include general violence, child and adolescent risks, suicide, fire starting, stalking, and problem sexual behaviour.
Clinical & forensic psychology
For those interested in what it means to work in the fields of clinical and/or forensic psychology, these seminars compare and contrast these exciting areas of practice. Hypothetical cases are used to illustrate the different practices used when the same client is referred for clinical versus forensic assessment and treatment.
report writing
Writing for the court can be anxiety provoking when you are unsure what questions should and should not be answered, how they should be answered, and how your report might be interpreted by other professionals. These workshops teach the fundamentals of writing a good report, responding to a request for a report, and knowing what questions you should and should not respond to when a request is made.
TAILORED WORKSHOPS
All of Grant’s workshops are tailored to address the unique goals and challenges of your workplace. Get in touch if you would like to discuss one of these workshops further, or if there are particular topics for which you and your colleagues would like further training about.