What Exactly Does a Forensic Psychiatrist Do?

A California psychiatrist from San Francisco, Joseph Kenan, MD, assists organizations with providing psychiatric services to their employees and clients. Receiving his medical education from the University of Oklahoma, Dr. Joseph Kenan was trained in forensic psychiatry during his residency at the University of California-Los Angeles.

Forensic psychiatry involves the intersection between psychiatry and the law and often entails the assessment of individuals entangled with the legal system in some way or another. The role forensic psychiatrists play in court include assessing defendants’ competency to stand trial; aid social workers during custody trials; and work with lawyers, patients, and defendants in the criminal justice system.

A forensic psychiatrist focuses primarily on the medical aspects of mental health. These practitioners have typically taken a significant amount of coursework in biology and neurology. Moreover, in the course of their study, they learn about chemical reactions in the brain, and how medication can be used to address imbalances in brain chemistry. They, then, provide diagnoses of a mental conditions and prescribe medication.