What happens to Special Hospital patients admitted to medium security?

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
Most studies of discharged Special Hospital patients have examined the outcome of patients discharged directly into the community. Some have included patients transferred to NHS hospitals, but there have been no reports of the progress of Special Hospital patients transferred to regional secure units (RSUs). This article describes the outcome of all the Special Hospital patients who were admitted to and discharged from medium secure units in the West Midlands region over 10 years. There were 51 patients included in the study and the follow-up ranged from 10 years to 6 months with a mean of 5.3 years The main findings were similar to other Special Hospital studies, in that patients with a legal classification of psychopathic disorder had a poorer prognosis dian mentally ill patients. No other factors could predict success or failure, such as sociodemographic variables, nature of offence, previous criminal and psychiatric histories, or past history of substance abuse. In the study failure was defined as an unsuccessful transfer with return to Special Hospital (this accounted for a third of the original group) or serious reconviction following release into the community. The reconviction rate at 11 per cent was lower than in other studies of discharged Special Hospital patients. None of the patients was convicted of minor offences during the follow-up period. The difficulty presented by psychopathic disorder patients is discussed