Overview

Are you a good malingerer? Do you like prizes? Do you ever wish you could play with a psychometric test before purchasing it? Well, this is the workshop for you….

Symptom validity is rarely assessed in Australia yet feigning is common in treatment and assessment settings. Certain referrals, such as for clients with a compensation claim, a criminal charge, personality problems, very low self-efficacy, or requesting access to restricted medications (e.g., ADHD) increase the likelihood of feigned symptoms.

A barrier to improved practice on this topic is that there is little guidance on how to find, select, purchase, administer and interpret tests of feigned mental illness and cognitive impairment. This workshop will present numerous feigning tests that may be used to assess feigned PTSD, depression, anxiety, psychosis, and memory problems. All tests are suitable for adults, and some tests are suitable for children too. Test data will be integrated to practice discriminating between intentional and unintentional feigning, and case studies will be explored to discriminate between factitious disorders, partial malingering, and full malingering.

Program

Day 1: Malingering Essentials

• Key terms
  • Aetiology of lying and deception
  • Feigning prevalence rates
  • Lying and deception detection strategies
  • Feigning detection strategies
  • The Sherman diagnostic criteria for malingering.
  • Ethics
  • Feigning PTSD:
• The Morel Emotional Numbing Test (ages 18+)
  • PCL-5 validity scales (ages 18+)Trauma Symptom Inventory - 2 (ages 18+) [Note. Brief overview only]
  • Matto 2019 criteria for feigned PTSD.

Day 2: Malingering Practical Skills

• The Erdodi Index for combining WAIS, WCST, Rey Complex Figure and CVLT findings (ages 18+).
• The IOP-29 and IOP-M for feigned depression, anxiety, PTSD, psychosis, neurological impairment, and memory impairment (ages 18+).
• The Greens Tests for feigned cognitive impairments and feigned memory impairment (ages 8 through adulthood).
  • Word Memory Test (WMT)
  • Medical Symptom Validity Test (MSVT)
  • Non-Verbal Medical Symptom Validity Test (MSVT)
  • Memory Complaints Inventory (MCI)
• The Paediatric Performance Validity Test Suite for feigned cognitive impairment (ages 5 to 18 only).
• The Validity Indicator Profile for feigned intellectual impairment and/or general cognitive impairment (ages 18+) [Note. Brief overview only]
• The Test of Variables of Attention for feigned ADHD (test age = 4-80; validity scales for ages 17+ only)
• The Miller Forensic Assessment of Symptoms Test for feigned mental illness (e.g., depression, anxiety, psychosis; ages 18+).
• The SIRS-2 for feigned mental illness (ages 18+). [Note. Brief overview only]
• Case studies, including cultural expressions of illness and response style.

Discounted tests
Several test publishers have offered special discounts to attendees who purchase their test/s after the workshop. Please note that Dr Blake receives no benefit for presenting the selected tests – these tests are simply among his favourites.

Learning Outcomes

It is intended that participants will:

• Understand the correct and incorrect terminologies to use when commenting upon symptom validity (e.g., “poor effort” is typically an incorrect term).
• Understand the frequency with which therapeutic and assessment clients are dishonest about their symptoms.
• Understand symptom validity detection methods.
• Practice administering and scoring tests for feigned PTSD, depression and anxiety, memory problems, cognitive impairment, and psychosis.
• Practice giving feedback to a treatment client about the results and treatment plan.

Presenter(s)

Dr Grant Blake

About the presenter(s)

Dr Blake is a clinical psychologist in private practice and a sessional researcher with the Centre for Forensic Behavioural Science. His therapeutic practice primarily centres around the treatment of PTSD, depression, grief, anxiety and the multi-disciplinary assessment of adult ADHD. Dr Blake has provided independent expert witness evidence for many complex forensic mental health matters, including for criminal law, family law, child safety, compensation, and decision-making capacity. He is an Accredited Medical Practitioner with WorkCover Tasmania to assess compensable psychiatric injuries. He is an active participant in providing shadow expert and independent expert witness evidence on mental health tests and reports.

Notes

Registration is for the two-day workshop and catering will be provided.

Target Audience

This event is aimed at CCN members and prospective CCN members, neuropsychology students, Forensic and Clinical college, and psychiatrists.

It is up to attendees to assess and determine how learning from this event aligns with the requirements of their learning plan. The providers accordingly do not make any representation that the event counts towards attendee's CPD learning requirements. If an attendee determines themselves that the learning they complete aligns to their learning plan, then they can decide to count those hours towards their CPD requirements for the registration cycle.

The information in this presentation has been prepared in good faith and for educational purposes only. Therefore, the information is general in nature and should not be relied upon in the treatment of any condition and you should seek your own independent professional and/or legal advice concerning any specific issue. The APS accepts no responsibility for any errors, omissions or decisions relating to the information. The content should not be reproduced without permission or unless permitted by law.

If you are experiencing registration difficulties please contact APS Events Support.