Forensic Paediatrician
I am working with a case at the moment that has been back and forth before Court for quite some time. The Father recently requested the
addition of a Forensic Paediatrican to test evidence and documents relating to the care of the children. The mother (who is a medical doctor) of the children is stating that both children have been diagnosed with ADHD and are medicated, however there is no record in any of the medical notes of either child being diagnosed. The specialists state that the mother has reported that the children have these diagnoses and because she is a doctor she is taken at her word. The ICL has taken the word of the mother and is backing her evidence and did not support the inclusion of a forensic paediatrician. The father has been given court consent to hire one but must pay for it himself with no…
Hi Leonie - I am newer to this group so hello! When I was in child protection I dealt with two matters of fictitious disorder imposed on another (FDIOA) whereby there were risks similar to what you've described but to an almost catastrophic level. One parent was medically trained and the other had legal training.
We did have a forensic pediatrician review one matter in particular due to the alleged diagnosis and over 200 doctors appointments per year. We used a forensic paed in South Australia who reviewed all medical records to provide expert opinion and sought an independent pediatrician to undertake a medical examination.
We also used Jon Jureidini (he was also in South Australia) for psychiatric assessments of said parents - https://researchers.adelaide.edu.au/profile/jon.jureidini.
Jon may be able give some direction of an appropriate forensic pediatrician for the father to seek input from. We weren't in South Australia, but we looked all around Australia to help due to the complex nature of the matter.
We also did a hair follicle test one of the children in one matter to see whether they were being medicated against doctors advice (they had oxy, amphetamine and cannabis in their system).
I have seen matters where children are diagnosed neurodiversity and medicated based upon one parent's description, and it was more about the parent's anxiety and some personality factors.
It could be more appropriate to have a psychiatric evaluation completed on the mother, but these are costly and would require someone with training (such as Jon) who is able to understand the complexities associated behaviours/symptoms similar to FDIOA and the impact of behaviours such as over diagnosis/ medicating for undiagnosed issues and be able to articulate how this can impact upon the wellbeing and safety of the children.
It's really complex to prove. We were successful only once, and then unsuccessful on the other, even though once they were no longer having contact with the parent of concern they had no medical issues, no hospital visits and required no further medical intervention.