ABSTRACT
Forensic psychiatrists are commonly asked to evaluate mental competency for a specic activity. e skills and knowledge needed for specic competencies are context dependent and specic to the function or activity being evaluated. Accordingly, someone may be competent for one purpose yet incompetent for another. Competence also can vary as a person’s underlying condition changes, or circumstances occur that challenge a person’s capabilities. e forensic psychiatrist is tasked with assessing whether the individual has the requisite threshold levels of mental abilities to perform the activity in question. is chapter explores the concept of competence assessment, generally. Several subsequent chapters focus on specic types of competence assessments.
