Forensic mental health aspects of intellectual disability and autism: An update

Dr Jane McCarthy is Medical Lead & Consultant Psychiatrist for the Intellectual Disability Service at Sussex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust, Visiting Senior Lecturer at the Department of Forensic & Neurodevelopmental Sciences, King’s College London, UK and Honorary Associate Professor in Psychological Medicine, University of Auckland, New Zealand.

Dr McCarthy has over 27 years of experience as a Consultant Psychiatrist working with people with  intellectual disabilities and/or autism spectrum disorders presenting across inpatient services, forensic services, prisons, courts and community-based services. She has over a 100 publications in peer-reviewed journals and books and has been an editor of six textbooks including the recently published textbook titled ‘Forensic Aspects of Neurodevelopmental Disorders: A Clinician’s Guide’

Clare Melvin, PhD, MSc, DipPsych, BA (Hons), is a Chartered Psychologist and Lecturer in Applied Psychology at the University of East Anglia.  Clare has over 10 years experience in research and clinical services for those with intellectual and developmental disabilities, including those with complex needs and forensic behaviours. She is a mixed methods researcher, supervising Doctoral, Masters and Undergraduate students in traditional and contemporary studies including relationships and sex education for those with special education needs, neurodiversity and gender, autism and biophilia and the use of artificial intelligence technologies for detecting abuse in social care.  Clare is trained in use of the Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule (ADOS) for clinical and research purposes has provided research and consultancy services to The Challenging Behaviour Foundation and British Institute of Learning Disabilities; at the University of East Anglia she sits on the Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Committee and focuses her scholarship-research on the Widening Participation agenda.