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Paper Presentation

Immigrants, Refugees, and Displaced Populations

Session: Centering Emotional Wellness and Legal Support for Immigrant Communities

Forensic Mental Health Evaluations: Using Social Work Clinical Expertise to Support Deportation Defense

Forensic mental health evaluators are vital for attorneys building a deportation defense. This research explores whether evaluators improve case outcomes and how evaluator mental health expertise is used by lawyers to strengthen immigration relief cases. Findings highlight evaluators’ contributions in corroborating case facts and contextualizing client testimony to support credibility.

Learning Objectives:

At the end of this session, attendees should be able to:
  1. On completion, the participant will be able to identify how mental health evaluations fit into deportation defense work
  2. On completion, the participant will be able to describe contributions that mental health evaluations make in case development, fact corroboration, and client credibility
  3. On completion, participants will be able to delineate how social workers in the role of mental health evaluators support positive outcomes to deportation defense cases