dr. Natalia went on to report that forensic psychiatry services in Indonesia are still quite recent. In fact, there are only 8 active forensic psychiatry consultants available throughout our country, forcing our law enforcement to entrust the majority of psychological checks to general psychiatrists. In fact, a recent nationwide study shows that more than 60% of Indonesian psychiatrists choose to refer cases to consultants because they perceive forensic psychiatry cases as “difficult” or “dangerous”.
Current laws regulating legal processes involving MDPs/PCPs have yet to accommodate the most recent restorative justice approaches, including proper methods for defining the psychological boundaries meant in existing regulations and the scientific evidence-based follow-up actions for same. This causes psychiatrists to hit dead ends when they are entrusted with the necessary psychological analyses in a case. Forensic psychiatry cases are practically synonymous with “high medico-legal conflict risks” – specifically legal charges from the relevant parties, as legal cases will naturally involve conflicting parties. With the current proliferation of social media usage, medico-legal conflicts frequently overflow into public opinion and cause external parties to exert their pressure to influence case rulings.
PATA Guidelines
In order to improve the overall quality of forensic psychiatry services available in our country, the University of Indonesia Medical Research Team has launched the Psycho-medico-legal Analysis Thinking Ability (PATA) guideline and training module. “PATA helps psychiatrists perform effective and efficient forensic psychiatry diagnoses, sharp analyses, and to present same properly, both verbally and in writing. PATA was created with contributions from cross-disciplinary experts, i.e. medicine (psychiatry, forensic psychiatry, forensic-medico-legal medicine, basic medicine), forensic psychology, and law (from the perspective of academicians, lawyers, prosecutors, and judges). Therefore, it is able to cover concrete needs as they appear, according to contexts and practices in the field. We hope that PATA guidelines will serve as a small step with big impact in terms of the protection of MDPs/ PCPs and the satisfaction of their rights, especially when they must face the law,” dr. Natalia said.
The PATA Guidelines cover an entire chain of diagnosis, i.e. from [1] preparation, [2] data collection and analysis, [3] report drafting, to [4] presentation of information in the courts. Therefore, it is a complete guideline for psychiatrists who provide forensic psychiatry services. Not only does PATA describe the actions that psychiatrists must take, but it also explains to law enforcers what they need to review and consider when hearing out legal cases that involve MDPs/PCPs.
During the same event, Fajri Nursyamsi, S.H., M.H., the Law and Policy Study Center’s Director of Advocacy and Networks, declared that even though a criminal suspect’s psychological condition is an important consideration in the investigative process, it does not automatically release the suspect from the consequences of their actions. Judgement must be made case by case and person by person, as generalization is literally impossible.