Community Services and Public Policy

The Community Services and Public Policy Section (CSPP) comprises three groups that interface with the community (from the local to international levels) and which are either involved in public policy or have the potential to impact on public policy.

The Institute of Law, Psychiatry, and Public Policy (ILPPP) works to help the mental health disciplines to provide sound, reliable clinical and scientific information to civil and criminal courts. The ILPPP is the primary site for UVA’s Department of Psychiatry and Neurobehavioral Sciences training programs in forensic psychiatry and forensic psychology. The ILPPP also works to Develop and shape laws and public policies related to mental health and human development. ILPPP scholars work to understand, assess, prevent, and manage violence in society, with particular emphasis on violence among people with mental disorders. Finally, the ILPPP works to promote human rights by developing and strengthening the ethical and legal foundations of the rights of persons who have, or are perceived to have, mental illnesses and disabilities.

The Division of Perceptual Studies (DOPS) is a research group within the Department of Psychiatry and Neurobehavioral Sciences at the University of Virginia Health System. The Division’s main purpose, and the raison d’être for its foundation, is the scientific investigation of phenomena that suggest that currently accepted scientific assumptions and theories about the nature of mind or consciousness, and its relationship to matter, may be incomplete.