Characteristics of PD Offenders Suitable for Health Diversion PAF
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Identifying characteristics associated with appropriate transfer to forensic mental health services for male offenders on the Offender Personality Disorder Pathway (OPDP)
IRAS ID
190898
Contact name
Mark Freestone
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Noclor
Duration of Study in the UK
0 years, 7 months, 31 days
Research summary
Successful management and rehabilitation of offenders with a personality disorder who pose a risk to others is acknowledged internationally as a challenging but socially and economically critical task, with dedicated services in both forensic mental health and criminal justice systems present in Europe, North America and Australasia. However, forensic mental health services are an expensive resource, and considerably more costly to the taxpayer than even the most intensive prison programmes.
In this study, we will consult with professionals and patients (in both hospital and prison settings) to obtain a consensus about the factors associated with a need for medium and high secure services for offenders with personality disorder, and with positive outcomes from those services. We will conduct a survey to obtain an expert consensus from a sample of professionals and commissioners in both forensic mental health and criminal justice over the key characteristics of personality disordered offenders who should be transferred to the health pathway. We would also like to explore the views of current and former patients who have used forensic mental health services for personality disorder on who they think benefits most from services, and why.
With this information, we will develop a screening tool that can give a clinically meaningful, valid and reliable means of deciding which personality-disordered offenders should be transferred to a secure health setting, because for them this offers the only environment for successful assessment, management and treatment. The decisions indicated by the algorithm would therefore need to be acceptable to most senior clinicians with expertise in the field, working both in prisons and secure hospital settings.
REC name
West of Scotland REC 4
REC reference
16/WS/0004
Date of REC Opinion
14 Jan 2016
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion