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MENTAL HEALTH & THE LAW: TRAUMA-INFORMED, CULTURALLY RESPONSIVE PRACTICE IN LEGAL SYSTEMS

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Shawna Paris, ONS, KC, MSW, RSW-CS, BCCH, PhD (student), is a dual-qualified lawyer and clinical social worker whose career spans law, mental health, social justice, and forensic practice. With more than twenty years of experience at the intersection of clinical care and legal systems, Shawna brings a rare, deeply informed perspective to her work with individuals, professionals, institutions, and communities.

Her clinical background includes extensive experience in forensic social work, mental health, trauma, and addiction services. She has worked in hospital-based mental health and addiction settings for sixteen years. She has served as a panel Chair under Nova Scotia’s Involuntary Psychiatric Treatment Act, adjudicating complex legal and psychiatric matters related to involuntary care.

As a lawyer with thirty years of practice experience, Shawna has been a dedicated advocate for individuals navigating the justice system, particularly through therapeutic and specialty courts. She is a certified assessor for the Province of Nova Scotia under the Adult Capacity and Decision-Making Act and a credentialed assessor of Impact of Race and Culture Assessments, known as IRCAs, which are an important mitigation tool used in criminal court sentencing.

Shawna is the Executive Director of the National Institute of Forensic Social Work (Canada) and serves on the Board of Directors of the Forensic Social Work Alliance, formerly the National Association of Forensic Social Work in the United States. She is also Chair of the Nova Scotia Human Rights Commission. Licensed as a clinical specialist social worker in Nova Scotia and Ontario, and registered in Alberta, Shawna maintains a small private clinical practice and provides consultation on forensic social work, mental health, trauma, human rights, and legal-system issues across Canada and internationally.

An experienced educator and mentor, Shawna is deeply committed to strengthening forensic social work education and practice. Her doctoral research focuses on forensic social work curriculum development, with a particular interest in preparing practitioners for the complex realities of forensic and legal-system work. She regularly develops and delivers training for social workers, health navigators, justice professionals, legal professionals, and community-based practitioners across Canada and beyond.

Through her workshops, seminars, and continuing education programs, Shawna helps professionals understand how trauma-informed, culturally responsive, and legally informed practice can improve advocacy, decision-making, and service delivery within the legal system.

Across all areas of her work, Shawna remains committed to advancing justice, protecting human rights, and strengthening meaningful supports for vulnerable and system-impacted populations in Canada and internationally.

Overview

The relationship between mental health and the law is increasingly complex, and professionals working in social services, health navigation, justice advocacy, and allied fields are being called upon to understand how legal systems shape the lives of individuals, families, and communities. Issues such as involuntary psychiatric admission, consent and capacity, substitute decision-making, therapeutic courts, cultural assessments, and social context evidence are no longer matters reserved only for lawyers. They are now part of the everyday landscape for professionals supporting clients who are navigating both mental health challenges and legal-system involvement.

This three-week online course provides a practical, interdisciplinary, and justice-oriented introduction to the core principles that connect mental health, law, advocacy, and forensic social work practice in Canada. Participants will explore how criminal, family, civil, and administrative legal systems affect individuals with mental health concerns, while also examining how racism, colonialism, ableism, poverty, gender-based violence, and other structural inequities contribute to unequal legal and mental health outcomes.

Grounded in trauma-informed, culturally responsive, and rights-based practice, the course helps learners develop the confidence to engage with legal systems in a more informed, ethical, and effective way. Participants will examine key areas such as mental health legislation, consent and capacity law, duty to report, client rights, substitute decision-making, therapeutic and specialty courts, and the role of non-lawyers in legal-system advocacy.

The course also introduces participants to the growing use of biopsychosocial, cultural, and social context assessments in legal settings, including Gladue Reports, Impact of Race and Culture Assessments, and other culturally grounded evaluations that may inform sentencing, service planning, capacity-related decisions, and advocacy. Learners will consider how these tools can support more equitable, contextualized, and humane outcomes for clients who are often misunderstood or marginalized within legal and institutional systems.

Throughout the course, participants will engage with case studies, reflective exercises, legal literacy activities, and practical scenarios designed to strengthen their ability to recognize legal issues, collaborate with legal professionals, support client rights, and respond ethically to complex situations.

This course is not simply an overview of law. It is an invitation to think critically about justice, power, trauma, culture, and advocacy. Whether participants are new to legal-system work or seeking to deepen their existing practice, the course offers practical knowledge and meaningful tools for supporting clients at the intersection of mental health and the law.

Key Features

This course includes:

• Three online modules delivered over three weeks
• 12 total hours of professional development
• Interactive case studies, peer discussions, and practical legal scenarios
• Trauma-informed, culturally responsive, and equity-focused instruction
• A Certificate of Completion from the National Institute of Forensic Social Work
• Content designed for social workers, health navigators, justice navigators, allied professionals, and human services students

What Participants Will Gain

By the end of this course, participants will have:

• A practical understanding of key Canadian mental health laws and legal system processes
• Greater confidence in identifying legal issues that may affect clients with mental health concerns
• Tools for recognizing and responding to systemic inequities in mental health and legal outcomes
• Strategies for ethical advocacy, interdisciplinary collaboration, and rights-based service delivery
• A deeper understanding of how trauma, culture, race, poverty, disability, and social location shape client experiences
• Applied knowledge of social context, cultural, and psychosocial assessments used in legal advocacy

Course Structure

Module 1: Foundations of Trauma-Informed and Rights-Based Practice

This module introduces participants to the foundational principles of trauma-informed care and rights-based practice within legal and mental health contexts. Learners will explore how trauma can affect behaviour, memory, communication, decision-making, and engagement with professionals.

The module also emphasizes the importance of cultural responsiveness, particularly when working with Indigenous peoples, racialized communities, people with disabilities, gender-diverse individuals, and others whose experiences with systems may be shaped by discrimination, exclusion, or historical harm.

Participants will examine:

• Core principles of trauma-informed care
• The impact of trauma on behaviour, cognition, memory, and communication
• The importance of cultural safety in legal and mental health settings
• How systemic inequities shape client experiences
• Signs and symptoms of trauma through case-based learning
• The role of professional self-awareness in ethical and culturally responsive practice

Module 2: Trauma-Informed Interviewing and Communication Skills

This module focuses on practical communication skills for working with clients in sensitive, high-stakes, or legally relevant contexts. Participants will learn how to create safer interview environments, ask effective questions, reduce the risk of re-traumatization, and support clients in sharing information at a pace that respects their dignity and autonomy.

Special attention is given to interviewing individuals from Indigenous, racialized, disability, gender-diverse, and other marginalized communities, with an emphasis on language, power, trust, and cultural humility.

Participants will examine:

• How to create a safe and culturally responsive interview environment
• Trauma-informed questioning techniques
• The difference between open-ended, closed, leading, and clarifying questions
• Strategies for responding to distress, silence, memory gaps, and sensitive disclosures
• Communication approaches that support trust and rapport
• Practical interviewing scenarios involving complex legal and social contexts

Module 3: Application, Ethics, Advocacy, and Professional Resilience

The final module brings together the course concepts through applied case studies, ethical reflection, and practical skill development. Participants will consider how to integrate trauma-informed and culturally responsive principles into real-world practice, particularly when clients are involved in legal, mental health, child protection, criminal justice, or administrative systems.

This module also explores the importance of professional boundaries, interdisciplinary collaboration, community engagement, and self-care when working with trauma, injustice, and complex systems.

Participants will examine:

• Ethical issues in trauma-informed and culturally responsive practice
• Managing sensitive disclosures in legal and mental health contexts
• Collaborating with legal professionals, service providers, and community organizations
• The role of social context evidence in advocacy and decision-making
• Self-care and resilience for professionals exposed to trauma-related work
• Development of a personal action plan for continued professional growth

Participants will also complete a short self-recorded trauma-informed interview simulation to support practical skill development and reflective learning.

Target Audience

This course is designed for social workers, health navigators, justice navigators, allied health professionals, community advocates, human service workers, and students preparing to work in legal, forensic, mental health, or justice-related settings.

Format

This course is delivered online over three weeks. Each module requires approximately four hours of online engagement.

There are no scheduled live lecture times. The course site is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week, allowing participants to complete the work at a time that fits their schedule.

Participants should have basic computer and internet skills, including the ability to watch online videos, post comments or reflections, complete course activities, and navigate the online learning platform.

Completion Requirements

Participants must complete a minimum of 80% of the course content to receive a Certificate of Completion from the National Institute of Forensic Social Work.

Enrolment is limited to 30 participants.

12 continuing education credit hours.

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