{3:20 minutes to read} This is the final blog in a series of 3. Read part 1 or part 2.

My prior blogs have attempted to delineate the boundaries of acceptable practices when a mental health professional is hired by an attorney to assist a litigant who is about to start a child custody evaluation. From the perspective of a mental health professional, taking into account our ethical standpoint, there is nothing wrong with educating clients about the varieties of issues which may arise regarding child custody evaluations.

The role of a mental health professional, when hired to prepare a client for custody evaluation, may include assisting the client in selecting appropriate collateral sources for the evaluator to contact. In many cases, the client also benefits from being encouraged to become more knowledgeable about child-rearing and development practices, whether through reading or gathering information from websites and child development professionals.

Similarly, it is appropriate for a mental health professional to directly provide information to their clients on child development and the known effects of divorce on children. This information would include:

• The effects of violence or conflict on children, as well as how children can be buffered from those effects

• An overview of the developmental needs of children at different stages

• How a child’s specific needs and attachment issues may impact the values of different shared parenting arrangements

• The importance of communication during the divorce process and the development of a successful parenting plan

• The various factors which might lead children to distance themselves from, or lose contact with, a parent

What is not acceptable is when a mental health professional is hired by an attorney to assist his/her client to prepare for a child custody evaluation, and to encourage the client to be disingenuous. It’s also inappropriate for a mental health professional to explicitly coach litigants on responses to specific questions taken from the psychological test that will be administered during the evaluation. The same applies to encouraging a client to make temporary and insincere changes for the sole purpose of strategic gains or delivering a positive impression during the child custody evaluation.

The focus of a mental health professional should always be education and support, not coaching the client.

Please contact me at nycforensics@gmail.com with questions or comments.

Dr. Alberto Yohananoff
NYC Forensics
dryohananoff@nycforensics.com
P: (646) 284-5600
F: (212) 706-9136

Posted in Forensic Evaluations