Effects of Competency to Stand Trial Group Program on Competency to Stand Trial among Forensic Psychiatric Patients

Abstract

Enhancing the competency to stand trial among forensic psychiatric patients who were found incompetent to stand trial is essential. The aim is to protect their right in criminal proceeding as equal as the general person. The purpose of this quasi-experimental research was to study the effects of competency to stand trial group program on competency to stand trial among forensic psychiatric patients. The sample of this study consisted of 20 forensic psychiatric patients who were under criminal procedure code section 14 and sent for mental examination and competency to stand trial evaluation at the forensic psychiatric institution. The participants were drawn into two equal groups, experimental and control groups. The experimental group received seven sessions of the competency to stand trial group program. The control group received the conventional care as usual. The instruments used in this study including the demographic data form and the competency to stand trial group program which were developed by the investigator and the competency to stand trial assessment form was developed by Thasaniyom and Buppatha. The Mann Whitney U Test and Wilcoxon Matched Pair Signed Ranks Test were used for data analyses. The results showed that after the completion of the seven sessions of program, the experimental group had the mean scores of the competency to stand trial significantly after receiving group program higher than before receiving the group program (p=.01). In addition, the experimental group had the mean scores of the competency to stand trial significantly higher than those of the control group (p=.001).

The competency to stand trial group program should be implemented as the legal rehabilitation standard of practice in the forensic psychiatric inpatient setting. The finding from this study can be utilized for the competency to stand trial individual program among forensic psychiatric patients who have limitation in group program.