#TraineeTuesdays: Dr. Christian Farrell

Meet today’s trainee, Dr. Christian Farrell a loong time lab member!

WHO: Dr. Farrell received a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology from Simon Fraser University then went on to complete his MD with the Faculty of Medicine at the University of British Columbia. He is currently a third-year psychiatry resident and masters student at the University of Alberta. He also serves as one of the residency program’s Lead Residents. ?He has been with the team for the past 10 years, spanning from his honors degree to his medical degree and residency training. While he is clearly bright and ambitious Christian is humble and an easy-going guy who never seems to get down. In all the time I have know him I don't know if I've seen him in a bad mood, just one of the many characteristics which make him a joy to have as a colleague.

Dr. Farrell's publications with our team have covered a range of diverse topics including: (1) investigating the relationship between rater confidence and risk assessment accuracy for the HCR-20 over time. (2) forensic mental health service delivery during COVID-19, and most recently (3) exploring supervised outings into the community for forensic patients. He and I also wrote an editorial on peer reviewing for the International Association of Forensic Mental Health Services newsletter when he was my editorial assistant for the journal.

WHY are we celebrating Dr. Farrell: Dr. Farrell led a study on "Staff supported community outings among forensic mental health patients: patient characteristics, rehabilitative goals, and (the absence of) adverse outcomes" accepted for publication in Frontiers in Forensic Psychiatry. ??????

In addition, he will be giving a paper on findings from this study at the upcoming 2024 CAPL conference in Vancouver in April. Christian will be speaking about the characteristics of patients who are provided with SSCOs, the purpose and nature of staff supervised outings, and report on the low rate of adverse events that occurred during the outings. We completed the study in collaboration with Dr. Petersen Karen and Peri Hanzouli, the Professional Practice Lead, Occupational Therapy and Vocational Services, at the BC Forensic Psychiatric Hospital.

SSCOS are an important area of research as there is often considerable stigma and misunderstanding in the community regarding forensic psychiatric patients being provided with community outings. Yet research confirms the considerable therapeutic value of patients being able to practice their skills in real life settings and the logic of increasing community privileges in a safe, stepwise manner is clear (i.e., progressing from small groups with multiple staff to larger groups and eventually independent access as patients get closer to discharge from hospital). Results from this study demonstrate that outings into the community for this patient population can support rehabilitation, community reintegration and mental health recovery, while maintaining public safety.?

Congratulations on your publication and your talk being accepted, Dr. Farrell! Looking forward to many more!