Noted psychiatrist to help UNC-CH start forensic field

A nationally prominent forensic psychiatrist who evaluated "Unabomber" Ted Kaczynski and would-be presidential assassin John Hinckley has been recruited to help establish a new forensic psychiatry program at UNC-Chapel Hill.

Dr. Sally C. Johnson, who profiled famous prisoners while serving as chief psychiatrist and associate warden of health services at the Federal Correctional Institute in Butner, will be one of two forensic psychiatrists on the new program's three-person faculty.

The program will provide a range of criminal and civil services, such as determining the capacity of defendants in criminal cases to stand trial or establishing the ability of individuals to make decisions about medical care or personal finances. It also will conduct research. One study under way is looking at how laws in all 50 states define juvenile sex offenses, with an aim of highlighting the challenges in applying such laws.

"It's pretty broad sweep," Johnson, a clinical professor of psychiatry at UNC-Chapel Hill, said of the new program.

The UNC-CH program will be the only one of its kind in the state that is based on the campus of a research university. Currently, forensic evaluations are done by psychiatrists and psychologists in private practice, or by those working for the state's mental hospitals.

Eric Elbogen, a UNC-CH forensic psychologist on the new program's faculty, said he and his colleagues will serve needs that aren't being met today.

For example, North Carolina is one of the top retirement states, with a substantial elder population that is drawing up wills and other end-of-life documents, he said. Attorneys could protect their clients' last wishes and stave off challenges by heirs if they were able to get an opinion confirming that the client was of sound mind when preparing their will.

"A lot of attorneys don't even know that's available, and we are right on the cusp of it becoming a big need," Elbogen said.

Another area that the UNC-CH program might serve is in providing evaluations of college and university students or staff who appear unstable. Such evaluations are in greater demand in the wake of the shooting last spring at Virginia Tech University, which left 33 dead.

"I think that's a growing area where we can be helpful," said Dr. Alyson Kuroski-Mazzei, the UNC-Chapel Hill program's third faculty member.