WA lacks behaviour program: expert
WA lacks a specialised problem behaviour program to deal with high-risk sexual offenders such as "TJD", according to a leading Perth psychiatrist.
Alexandra Welborn, the Australian Medical Association's psychiatry spokeswoman and former chairwoman of the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists WA branch, said that without specialist care, psychopathic offenders could subvert treatment and re-offend.
Correctional services on their own were not equipped to deal with deviant sex offenders with psychopathic traits, who were able to pass basic psychotherapy programs by cheating and lying.
Dr Welborn said WA needed a community program with a strong academic base to deal with complex offenders, modelled on one run by the Victorian Institute of Forensic Mental Health.
It provides outpatient assessment and treatment for a range of behaviours covering death threats, stalking, paedophilia, sex offences and child pornography and monitors offenders on court orders or parole.
"We are really underdone in our forensic services here and there are concerns about this particular offender being released, in that there has been evidence he has psychopathic traits which are very difficult to deal with," Dr Welborn said.
"In Victoria, this offender would be a suitable candidate for the problem behaviour program and he would be given a very detailed assessment looking at all the psychopathic science to determine if he was suitable for a community treatment.
"Ideally, he would be seen weekly in a problem behaviour clinic and have nurses making sure he took his medication (to stop deviant urges) and his mental state monitored."
Dr Welborn said a push to get funding for such a service in WA had stalled.
The Department of Corrective Services said WA had a dangerous sexual offender psychology team to help assess and manage offenders.
