Community & Public Safety Psychiatry Division

The Community and Public Safety Psychiatry Division (CPSPD) provides a variety of consulting, evaluation, and treatment services along with education and training in the areas listed below.

Programs & Centers

Forensic Psychiatry Program (FPP) – provides consulting services that span the forensic field with expertise in civil and criminal case work such as competency to stand trial, criminal responsibility, capacity to conform behavior, mitigation, risk assessment, impact of traumatic brain injury, malpractice, worker's compensation, disability, standards of care, guardianships & conservatorships, and consultation to criminal, civil, family and probate courts around the state.

MUSC Resilient Responder Program – dynamically provides mental health wellness and resiliency trainings approved for continuing education credit by South Carolina Criminal Justice Academy (SCCJA) and one-on-one annual check-up style confidential visits with front line trauma personnel serving the greater Lowcountry of South Carolina. The combination of classroom education and exposure to mental health concepts promotes a well culture, one in which a Responder may be more likely to voluntarily seek psychotherapy should a need arise.

Since 2020, MUSC has clinically provided direct mental health services tailored to the mental wellbeing of local First Responders. Police/Sheriff, Fire Service, Emergency Medical Services (EMS), Coroners, and Animal Society personnel have actively attended the program. All are front line workers bearing witness to high levels of trauma. Responders can receive services of the program in the field, in their agencies, and even virtually to create accessibility. Humanizing mental health to reduce the historic stigma of mental health is an ongoing goal of the program.

Progressive Professionals Program (PPP) – provides evaluations, treatment and oversight for licensed and certified professionals working in the health care, legal/criminal justice and transportation fields to include pre-employment evaluations for law enforcement and fitness-for-duty evaluations across all the aforementioned professions. In addition, evaluations can be provided for any employee referred by a business or service, as well as compensation cases and evaluations and reviews or second opinions.

Youth & Family Forensic Program (YFFP) – is a program within the Community and Public Safety Psychiatry Division of the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the Medical University of South Carolina. The YFFP team includes professionals from multiple disciplines, including a psychologist, psychiatrist, and professional counselor, all of whom have training and expertise in child development and parenting interventions. Doctoral evaluators have completed formal forensic specialty training. Evaluations offered by the YFFP are related to dissolution of marriage (e.g., child custody, family evaluations), child protection (e.g., parental fitness), legally-involved youth (e.g., competency to stand trial, criminal responsibility, risk assessment, mitigation, transfer/waiver, reverse transfer), and adoption. Please contact the YFFP in the event a service not described is required. 

Community Clinical Services Center (CCSC) – provides outpatient setting mental health care on the MUSC campus, and at community and institutional settings locally and around the state via telepsychiatry; conducts clinical research; provides medical student, residency, and fellowship education rotations; includes the Adult Psychiatry Clinic, Community Psychiatry Clinic, two on-site and telepsychiatry clinics in several SC Department of Corrections (SCDC) institutions around the state, and a treatment clinic and evaluation service in the SC Department of Juvenile Justice (SCDJJ).

Sexual Behaviors Clinic and Lab (SBCL) – provides comprehensive sexual behavior evaluations for individuals charged with or convicted of sexual offenses and evaluation of paraphilic disorders and the other problematic sexual behaviors. These evaluations are multimethod and include psychological and physiological (e.g., penile plethysmography) assessment. The SBCL additionally provides treatment of sexual behavior disorders and the other problematic activities including paraphilic disorders. Clinicians within the SBCL provide expert testimony regarding sexual behavior, sexual offending, grooming behaviors, and paraphilic disorders.

Click here to learn more about our Programs & Centers.

Education and Training

Education and Training Program – conducts Forensic Psychiatry Fellowship, Postdoctoral Fellowship in Forensic Psychology, medical student, physician resident, and fellow clinical electives, psychology intern, forensic and research electives, general psychiatry medication management clinic elective, social worker forensic field placement, criminal justice and psychology undergraduate internship electives. The CPSPD has at any given time a mix of private, state, and federally funded research projects focused on forensic, sexual behavior, law enforcement, general community-based psychiatry services, and other topics.

Faculty in the CPSPD include professionals from multiple disciplines including physicians, psychologists (clinical, neurocognitive, and forensic), social workers, professional counselors, a plethysmography lab technician, and a polygraph examiner.

Click here to learn more about our Education and Training Opportunities.