NARPA
Joel Dvoskin, Ph.D, A.B.P.P.
Joel Dvoskin, PhD is a clinical psychologist, licensed in the State of Arizona since 1981 and the State of New Mexico since 2005. He is a Diplomate in Forensic Psychology of the American Board of Professional Psychology, a Fellow of the American Psychological Association (APA) and the American Psychology-Law Society. Dr. Dvoskin is past President of Division 18 of the American Psychological Association, Psychologists in Public Service, (2000-2001), past President of the American Psychology-Law Society, Division 41 of the APA.
Dr. Dvoskin holds a Certificate of Professional Qualification in Psychology from the Association of State and Provincial Psychology Boards. Dr. Dvoskin is author of numerous articles and chapters in professional journals and texts, including a number of articles that deal with treatment of persons with serious mental illness and co-occurring substance use disorders. He has been qualified as an expert witness on these and related issues in numerous state and federal courts throughout the United States.
Dr. Dvoskin is a member of several expert teams for the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice (USDOJ), focusing on the rights of inmates, detainees, and patients housed in various forms of secure confinement.
Dr. Dvoskin recently completed serving as the architectural design consultant for new construction to replace the Saint Elizabeth's Hospital in Washington, D.C. and the Colorado Mental Health Institute--Pueblo. He has served in such a capacity for a number of psychiatric hospital construction projects in the U.S. and Puerto Rico. He has provided architectural consultation to various agencies and parties on the elimination of suicide hazards in the physicals plants of correctional and psychiatric facilities throughout the United States.
Dr. Dvoskin frequently provides training to clinicians in the treatment of persons with serious mental illness and/or substance abuse disorders. He also provides training throughout the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom on assessing the risk of violence to self and others
Dr. Dvoskin served as Acting Commissioner of Mental Health for the State of New York, overseeing 31 state psychiatric hospitals, 25,000 staff, and the care of more than 100,000 New Yorkers with serious mental illness. For eleven years prior to that, he served as Director of Forensic Services and Associate Commissioner for Forensic Services for the New York State Office of Mental Health. In this capacity he oversaw the forensic and correctional mental health systems for the State of New York and directly supervised three free-standing maximum security forensic psychiatric hospitals, two forensic units, and fifteen prison mental health programs.
Dr. Dvoskin recently served as a monitor of federal court settlement agreements over psychiatric hospitals in Tacoma, Washington and Pueblo, Colorado, and the Bernalillo County Detention Center. He currently serves as one of two monitors of a federal court settlement agreement involving the Michigan Department of Corrections. He has testified in numerous class actions regarding the treatment and suicide prevention for persons with serious mental illness and/or co-occurring mental health and substance use disorders in hospitals, prisons, and jails throughout the United States. Dr. Dvoskin has consulted to state and local governments in more than half of the United States in the provision of mental health services in public settings. He has provided staff training on treatment to numerous psychiatric hospitals across the U.S.