How could forensic psychiatry be made more attractive?

Abstract

Decrease in the number of forensic psychiatric experts recently reached a critical level. Shortage of forensic experts caused difficulties in the health care as well as in the justice system. Surveying of how the field of forensic psychiatry and the forensic psychiatric expert work can be made more attractive. We performed an online survey among forensic psychiatric experts and specialists in psychiatry. We complied a questionnaire that beside demographic data contained questions in 4 areas. The first 2 areas of the questionnaire - simplifying the forensic psychiatry training (10 items), decreasing the cost of the forensic psychiatry training (5 items) - consisted of simple tatements. Responders had to indicate on a 10-point Likert scale their level of agreement. In the last 2 areas, participants were asked to describe in unstructured format whether they see any circumstance that makes forensic psychiatry attractive or unattractive. The questionnaire was sent out in electronic form to the forensic psychiatric experts on the mailing list of the Hungarian Forensic Expert Chamber, and all specialists in psychiatry on the mailing list of the Hungarian Medical Chamber. Altogether 171 persons filled in the questionnaire with a mean age of 57.26 ± 11.57 years. There were 122 (71.3%) females among the participants. The following proposals received the highest ratings from the forensic psychiatric experts as well as from the specialists in psychiatry: increasing the number of the training institutes; decreasing the costs of the training; making the Hungarian Forensic Expert Chamber course free of charge; and introducing a stipend to cover the costs of the training. Results of the survey indicate that active forensic psychiatric experts and specialists in psychiatry representing a potential professional resource, concur that forensic psychiatry training can be made more attractive mainly with increasing the number of training institutes and decreasing the total costs of the training which is compiled from different constituents. Due to the critical lack of necessary professionals, urgent action is needed to make forensic psychiatry more popular and the forensic psychiatry qualification easier to obtain. Orv Hetil. 2023; 164(35): 1373-1380.