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Community forensic psychiatry: restoring some sanity to forensic psychiatric rehabilitation
Author(s) -
Skipworth J.,
Humberstone V.
Publication year - 2002
Publication title -
acta psychiatrica scandinavica
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.849
H-Index - 146
eISSN - 1600-0447
pISSN - 0001-690X
DOI - 10.1034/j.1600-0447.106.s412.11.x
Subject(s) - assertive community treatment , forensic psychiatry , psychiatry , mental health , sanity , psychology , mental illness , rehabilitation , psychiatric rehabilitation , forensic science , assertiveness , medicine , psychotherapist , neuroscience , veterinary medicine
Objective: To review clinical and legal paradigms of community forensic mental health care, with specific focus on New Zealand, and to develop a clinically based set of guiding principles for service development in this area. Method: The general principles of rehabilitating mentally disordered offenders, and assertive community care programmes were reviewed and applied to the law and policy in a New Zealand forensic mental health setting. Results: There is a need to develop comprehensive community treatment programmes for mentally disordered offenders. The limited available research supports assertive community treatment models, with specialist forensic input. Ten clinically based principles of care provision important to forensic mental health assertive community treatment were developed. Conclusion: Deinstitutionalization in forensic psychiatry lags behind the rest of psychiatry, but can only occur with well‐supported systems in place to assess and manage risk in the community setting. The development of community‐based forensic rehabilitation services in conjunction with general mental health is indicated.