Defense presses Tufts on 25-minute video sessions and prescribing
Lindsay Clancy’s lawyer probed her psychiatrist’s expertise, prescribing decisions and overall treatment as the defense sought Monday to suggest that the mental healthcare system overlooked and even accelerated the Massachusetts mother’s decline in the months before she killed her three young children.
In questioning Dr. Jennifer Tufts, defense lawyer Kevin Reddington spotlighted her use of 25-minute video appointments with limited time for talk therapy, the computerized forms that documented her observations, and the series of pharmaceuticals she recommended as Clancy reported various side effects, symptoms and concerns about taking medications.
Reddington portrayed Clancy’s care not as common practice in U.S. mental healthcare, but rather as inadequate and indifferent treatment.
At one point in the cross-examination, Reddington implied that the doctor was a box-checking “robot.”
The exchange is part of the trial proceedings in the case against Clancy, who is accused of killing her three young children.