OUR EXPERTS
Dr Grange and Associates (DGA) are highly selective about the psychologists used, and their expertise is matched to each case. When a psychologist is put forward for a case, we use the following approach:
- The psychologist must have worked extensively with the client group in question (children, adolescents, parents, adults, or offenders)
- To further ensure our experts have the right experience, we only work with those with significant public sector experience be it with the NHS, a Local Authority or in Prisons or the Probation Service.
- All our experts are HCPC registered – the regulatory body for practitioner psychologists.
We work mainly with Clinical, Counselling, Forensic and Educational psychologists all of whom have differing skills and expertise, but they also have many similarities.
Clinical
Psychologists
Clinical psychologists have a generic training and then specialise, for example, with children, offenders, people with neurodevelopmental delay and a range of other groups. It is their specialism which determines the types of reports they can write. Typical areas of expertise are:
- Assessment of parenting
- Cognitive assessment of adults and children
- Impact of parental mental health difficulties on children
- Attachment to parents and siblings
- Child protection, risk and impact of abuse
- Looked after children
- Developmental trauma
- Autism/ADHD
- Ability to protect children
- Clinical negligence
- Capacity to instruct/court of protection
- Assessment of child and adolescent mental health
- Assessment of adult mental health
- Risk assessments in criminal and family settings
- Medico legal
- Personal Injury
Forensic psychologists
Forensic psychologists have a specific training in working with offenders/forensic populations, and with adults. Many will develop other specialisms too. Typical areas of expertise are:
- Adult mental health
- Substance misuse
- Personality disorders
- Suggestibility
- Structured risk assessments
- Risk of offending
- Risk to children
- Parent risk assessment
- Assessment of parenting (risk focussed)
- Cognitive assessment of adults and children
- Impact of parental mental health difficulties on children
- Medico legal/Personal injury
- Child protection, risk and impact of abuse
- Autism and ADHD
- Ability to protect children
- Impact of abuse/PTSD
- Capacity to instruct/court of protection
- Assessment of adult mental health
Counselling Psychologists
Counselling psychologists train in specific therapeutic modalities across the lifespan, with a strong focus on relationships. Initially their training is focussed on therapeutic skills, before specialising, for example, with children, offenders, people with intellectual disability and so on. It is their specialism which determines the types of reports they can write. Typical areas of expertise are:
- Assessment of parenting
- Cognitive assessment of adults and children
- Impact of parental mental health difficulties on children
- Looked after children
- Attachment to parents and siblings
- Child protection, risk and impact of abuse
- Developmental trauma
- Autism and ADHD
- Ability to protect children
- Impact of abuse/PTSD
- Capacity to instruct/court of protection
- Assessment of child and adolescent mental health
- Assessment of adult mental health
- Risk assessments in criminal and family settings
PSYCHIATRISTS
Psychiatrists specialise in the diagnosis, treatment, and management of mental health conditions. Psychiatrists are uniquely qualified to provide expert opinions where mental illness, risk, and capacity are in question, particularly when there may be a need for medical diagnosis, consideration of pharmacological treatment, or an understanding of the interface between risk and mental health. The types of reports they can provide are shaped by their experience across general adult, child and adolescent, forensic among other subspecialties. Typical areas of expertise are:
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Diagnosis and management of mental health problems and personality disorders
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Risk assessment (to self or others)
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Fitness to plead and stand trial
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Criminal responsibility (including insanity and diminished responsibility)
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Capacity to make decisions (e.g., in the Court of Protection or under the Mental Capacity Act)
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Mental Health Act assessments and detention decisions
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Assessment of substance misuse and its impact
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Child and adolescent psychiatric assessments (e.g., for Family Court)
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Parenting capacity where mental illness is a factor
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Prognosis and treatment recommendations
“I have instructed DGA in numerous extradition cases to assess and prepare a report on the effect extradition would have on my clients’ families. I found DGA to be extremely reliable and experts always complied with the court’s strict deadlines and provided a detailed and well structured report in the court proceedings”
Renata Pinter, Dalton Holmes Gray Solicitors
Our registered address:
Dr Grange and Associates
Maple House
High St
Potters Bar
Hertfordshire
EN6 5BS
Copyright DGA Associates 2021.
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DGA provides the full range of expert witness/medico legal services in family, criminal and civil law, always in accordance with Legal Aid Agency rates and guidelines.
Telephone: 01707 594 001
Email: enquiries@dgaexperts.co.uk
Opening hours: Monday to Friday 9am to 5pm