Grow in Self Awareness: Exploring our own Forensic Attitude and Bias

Workshop Description:

This workshop will use the Child Forensic Attitude Scale (CFAS) developed by Mark Everson and Jose Sandoval as a basis to understanding if our attitude leans towards an emphasis on sensitivity (minimizing false errors), specificity (minimizing false positive errors) or skepticism (beliefs about the likely truthfulness or non-truthfulness). After determining everyone’s scores, we will break learners into each category to discuss and then return as a full group. Continued lecture and group activities will explore other viewpoints and provide an understanding of how our personal and professional experiences impact our forensic attitude. Emphasis will be placed on growing in our own self-awareness as an opportunity to improve our practice. These goals will be achieved through lecture, small group activities, large group discussions and case studies following the identification of our forensic attitude to help learners grow in their self-awareness.

Learning Objectives:

• Be able to identify their own bias through the use of the Child Forensic Attitude Scale (CFAS)

• Understand how our professional and personal experiences may impact our bias

• Gain a better understanding of how these same bias may present in children, families and our multidisciplinary team members

• Apply this forensic attitude knowledge in their own practices in order to ensure exclusivity and non-biased practices