- Tele-Visits must be approved by the treatment team and require an order by the attending physician.
- Tele-Visits are limited to 15 minutes once weekly.
- Persons planning tele-visits must schedule a visitation day and time through the social worker in advance.
- Extended tele-visits must be approved in advance by the Executive Director or Clinical Director.
- Visits are limited to family and attorneys only during the first thirty days following admission.
- Special visitation is reserved for children under the age of 16 years old. Special visitation can be arranged through the social worker.
- Consumers on conditional release or that have been discharged from OFC cannot participate in tele-visit with current consumers.
- Previous or current OFC staff will not be approved to visit OFC consumers.
Oklahoma Forensic Center
Population Served: 18+ Years Old
The Oklahoma Forensic Center (OFC) is the largest inpatient behavioral health facility in the Oklahoma Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services (ODMHSAS) system. It is located in Vinita, Oklahoma, about 60 miles northeast of Tulsa, and serves all 77 counties of Oklahoma as the only inpatient forensic facility. Our mission is to provide quality forensic evaluations and effective psychiatric treatment in a therapeutic environment that preserves public safety.
OFC serves two populations, including:
1) Pretrial defendants who were deemed incompetent for adjudication.
2) Individuals adjudicated as Not Guilty by Reason of Insanity (NGRI)/Not Guilty by Reason of Mental Illness (NGRMI).
In addition, OFC provides both in- and outpatient evaluations of adjudicative competency across all counties in Oklahoma. OFC provides a full medical clinic to address ongoing physical conditions and tend to the preventative health needs of our consumers. We have both a dentist and pharmacy on site to provide routine dentistry and address all medication needs comprehensively.
Additional activities and services offered on site include: recreation therapy, barbershop and salon services, canteen, library, physical activities, art and music groups, talent shows and outdoor time!
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Bed Availability & Expanding OFC
There is a national delay in criminal defendants accessing mental health services, impacting patient flow and creating barriers to entering and exiting the forensic hospital system. The increasing demand for inpatient forensic services at OFC has caused a delay for individuals within jails needing competency evaluations and restoration to the extent that the ODMHSAS is taking swift action. As of January 2022, the Rose Rock Recovery Center became “Transitions Recovery Center” and serves as a step down facility for OFC consumers. In addition, construction processes have begun to add 80 additional beds to OFC, helping remove existing barriers to patient flow and reducing the imbalance between capacity and demand.
History: Eastern State Hospital
OFC opened in January 1913 and was originally named East Oklahoma Hospital for the Insane. The first 300 patients were transferred to Vinita by train from the Oklahoma Sanitarium Company in Norman on January 28, 1913. An additional 300 patients were transferred in 1914. Peak population reached in the mid-1950s was 2,600 patients.
Oklahoma Forensic Center
The facility became a solely forensic facility and was renamed Oklahoma Forensic Center on April 10, 2003; OFC's new building was constructed and opened in 2008.
Community
Vinita offers a small-town feel but is within an hour's drive to big city shopping, restaurants and amenities. OFC is within driving distance of two of Oklahoma’s most beautiful lakes, Grand Lake and Lake Hudson, and is located between Joplin, MO and Tulsa, OK.
Visiting Information
In order to assist our consumers and their support systems in connecting during difficult times, we have implemented a Tele-Visitation program.
Tele-Visitation Hours during COVID-19:
Monday - Friday: 5:00 p.m. - 8:00 p.m.
Weekends/Holidays: 9:00 a.m. - 8:00 p.m.
- Tele-visits will be held in the treatment team room or the interview room on each Pod.
- No more than two visitors per session unless otherwise approved by Clinical or Executive Director.
- Staff will connect the visit and remain outside the door for monitoring purposes. There is no expectation of privacy; all video calls will be monitored by staff closely and maintain a visual on the screen and consumer at all times.
- Unruly or inappropriate behaviors such as nudity and foul language will result in the immediate termination of visit and may result in restrictions of consumer visitation.
- Willful violation of visitation rules by the consumer or visitors will result in restriction of visitation.
- Only those approved for tele-visitation will be authorized on the camera. Any deviation of this will result in visit forfeiture.
Notes:
Visiting parties are responsible to provide their own devices for visitation, inclusive of internet. OFC is not responsible to assist the other party with tech support or any device support.
Forensic Fellowship
The Oklahoma State University Center for Health Sciences Forensic Psychiatry Fellowship in partnership with the Oklahoma Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services, Oklahoma Forensic Center provides an extensive one year training in both civil and criminal forensic psychiatry. The teaching staff consists of two forensic psychiatrists, one forensic psychologist, one attorney who is also a clinical psychologist, one forensic neuropsychologist, and one child and adolescent psychiatrist.
The forensic fellows receive their clinical training at Oklahoma Forensic Center providing patient care for those previously adjudicated Not Guilty by Reason of Insanity/Mental Illness as well as patients receiving competency to stand trial restoration. The fellows will conduct regular forensic evaluations, including both adjudicative competence and violence risk assessments, through the Oklahoma Forensic Center. Fellows will also perform legally complex forensic psychiatry consultations through Tulsa Center for Behavioral Health and Oklahoma State University Medical Center. Additionally, fellows will have the opportunity to work with legal counsel performing forensic psychiatric consultation services.
The weekly forensic psychiatry didactic courses include a Landmark Case Seminar, a Forensic Case Seminar (covering criminal, civil, adult and juvenile cases), a Forensic Topics Didactic Seminar, and a Forensic Psychological Testing/Research Seminar. Extensive supervision is provided in forensic report writing and testifying in legal settings. In addition, fellows are trained to administer, score, and testify on a range of structured assessment instruments including the assessment of general and sexual violence risk, malingering of psychosis, traumatic reactions, and cognitive impairment, competency to stand trial, and juvenile competency and risk assessment.
Apart from annual stipend and benefits, program benefits also include a fully paid trip to attend the annual meeting of AAPL and the three day review course immediately preceding the meeting. Benefits also include the opportunity to live within walking distance of the fellows’
Forensic Fellowship Director - Dr. Jason Beaman
Forensic Fellowship Assistant Program Director - Dr. Reagan Gill
Forensic Psychology Internship
The Oklahoma Forensic Center is a member of the Northeastern Oklahoma Internship Program (NOPIP) and offers a pre-doctoral internship that is accredited by the American Psychological Association (APA). A variety of opportunities for forensic and general clinical practice are available for our interns and training experiences are tailored to meet the intern's individual goals and interests. Assessment is a primary area for training, including evaluations of adjudicative competency and violence risk. There are also ample opportunities for generalist types of assessment, including testing for personality, psychopathology, cognitive functioning (including neuropsychological screening), and malingering. Interns also facilitate individual and group therapy for the NGRI/NGRMI population in addition to providing competency restoration training to defendants deemed incompetent for adjudication.
Due to the diversity and quantity of assessment and treatment opportunities available at OFC, interns are able to develop and hone a broad skillset during their pre-doctoral internship year. Consistent with the Practitioner-Scholar model, OFC places high importance on using science and research to inform clinical practice. We are committed to research (e.g., OFC was one of the sites for the original standardization of the Mac-CAT-CA) and staff members are actively involved in ongoing research projects, which interns are invited to be a part of. In addition, OFC qualifies for Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF).
The Oklahoma Forensic Center is accredited by The Joint Commission. More info on The Joint Commission accredidation and certification process can be found here.
