Lowering legal barriers to transitioning mentally disordered offenders into general mental health care

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Dawson ◽  
Tom Burns
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Health Care ◽  
Mental Health Care ◽  
Mentally Disordered Offenders ◽  
Mentally Disordered ◽  
General Mental Health ◽  
Commitment Scheme ◽  
Key Factor ◽  
Mentally Disordered Offender ◽  
Legal Barriers

This chapter considers legal mechanisms for directing that the treatment of a mentally disordered offender should take place under the civil commitment scheme. Mentally disordered offenders should be dealt with in the least restrictive manner and receive timely transfer of their care to general mental health teams. We discuss factors likely to influence the responsible authorities when deciding whether to direct offenders to treatment under the civil scheme. The scope of the powers that would continue to be available over the person’s treatment is a key factor. With insufficient powers, authorities might be reluctant to direct an offender to the civil scheme. Yet, if strong powers were available, that would pose a threat to the rights of ordinary civil patients under that scheme. Some way must therefore be found to finesse the differing interests of offenders and ordinary civil patients in the design of the civil scheme. .

scholarly journals The Mental Health (Care and Treatment) (Scotland) Act 2003: legislation for mentally disordered offenders

2006 ◽  
Vol 30 (11) ◽  
pp. 423-429 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lindsay D. G. Thomson
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Health Care ◽  
Mental Health Care ◽  
Direct Effect ◽  
Criminal Procedure ◽  
Mentally Disordered Offenders ◽  
Mentally Disordered ◽  
Care And Treatment

The Mental Health (Care and Treatment) (Scotland) Act 2003 contains major amendments to the Criminal Procedure (Scotland) Act 1995 that have a direct effect on the assessment and management of mentally disordered offenders. The major developments and provisions of this new legislation are described.

Deinstitutionalisation and the penal state

2020 ◽  
pp. 55-72
Author(s):  
Ian Cummins
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Health Care ◽  
Mental Health Care ◽  
Mentally Ill ◽  
Psychiatric Care ◽  
Mentally Disordered Offenders ◽  
Mentally Disordered ◽  
Penal State ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
The Way

This chapter will explore the relationship between deinstitutionalisation and the increase in the use of imprisonment. The chapter begins with a consideration of the problem of how do we define “mentally disordered offenders” and a brief outline of the Penrose Hypothesis (Penrose, 1939 and 1943) which sought to explain the links between the use of imprisonment and institutionalised psychiatric care. This approach will be used as critical lens to examine policy developments in this area. Broader issues regarding the treatment of mentally disordered offenders will then be discussed. This section will highlight the pressures on the CJS and the way that it has become, in many cases, a de facto provider of mental health care. The argument that deinstitutionalisation has led to the “criminalisation of the mentally ill” will be discussed. The legacy of deinstitutionalisation and the expansion of the penal state will be discussed focusing on contemporary issues in the CJS.

scholarly journals Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on the General Mental Health in Sweden: No Observed Changes in the Dispensed Amount of Common Psychotropic Medications in the Region of Scania

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mirjam Wolfschlag ◽  
Cécile Grudet ◽  
Anders Håkansson
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Health Care ◽  
Mental Health Care ◽  
Interrupted Time Series ◽  
Psychotropic Medications ◽  
Interrupted Time Series Analysis ◽  
Swedish Population ◽  
General Mental Health ◽  
Before And After ◽  
The One

Some first investigations have focused on the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic for the general mental health after its outbreak in 2020. According to multiple self-reporting surveys, symptoms of stress, anxiety, and depression have risen worldwide. Even some studies based on health care records start to be published, providing more objective and statistically reliable results. Additionally, concerns have been raised, to what extend the access to mental health care has been compromised by the COVID-19 outbreak. The aim of this study was to detect changes in prescription trends of common psychotropic medications in the Swedish region of Scania. The monthly dispensed amounts of selected pharmaceuticals were compared from January 2018 until January 2021, regarding the prescription trends before and after the outbreak of COVID-19. Using an interrupted time series analysis for each medication, no general trend changes were observed. On the one hand, a possible deterioration of the general mental health could not be confirmed by these results. On the other hand, the access to mental health care did not seem to be impaired by the pandemic. When interpreting findings related to the COVID-19 pandemic, regional differences and country-specific approaches for coping with the pandemic should be considered. The Swedish population, for instance, never experienced a full “lock-down” and within Sweden the time point of the outbreak waves differed regionally. In general, the effects of the COVID-19 outbreak on mental health are still unclear and need to be investigated further in an international comparison.

scholarly journals The Results of Clinician-Focused Implementation Strategies on Uptake and Outcome of Measurement-Based Care in General Mental Health Care

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maartje van Sonsbeek ◽  
Giel J. M. Hutschemaekers ◽  
Jan W. Veerman ◽  
Ad Vermulst ◽  
Bea G. Tiemens
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Health Care ◽  
Treatment Outcome ◽  
Mental Health Care ◽  
Implementation Strategies ◽  
Completion Rate ◽  
Treatment Length ◽  
General Mental Health ◽  
Measurement Based Care ◽  
Satisfaction With Treatment

Abstract BACKGROUND: Measurement-Based Care (MBC) is a promising way to improve outcomes in clinical practice, but the implementation of MBC is often problematic and the uptake by clinicians is low.METHODS: We used an effectiveness-implementation hybrid design based on Grol and Wensing’s implementation framework to examine the results of clinician-focused implementation strategies on both clinicians’ uptake of MBC and outcomes of MBC for clients in general mental health care. Primary outcomes were questionnaire completion rate and discussion of feedback. Secondary outcomes were treatment outcome, treatment length, and satisfaction with treatment. RESULTS: There was a significant medium effect of the MBC implementation strategies on questionnaire completion rate (one part of the clinicians’ uptake), but no significant effect on the amount of discussion of the feedback (the other part of the clinicians’ uptake). Neither was there a significant effect on clients’ outcomes (treatment outcome, treatment length, satisfaction with treatment).CONCLUSIONS: Establishing and sustaining MBC in real world general mental health care is very complex. Our study helps to disentangle the effects of MBC implementation strategies on differential clinician uptake, but the effects of MBC implementation strategies on client outcomes need further examination.

The Community Mental Health Team and the mentally disordered offender

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Frank Holloway ◽  
Tony Davies
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Criminal Justice ◽  
Criminal Justice System ◽  
Justice System ◽  
Clear Understanding ◽  
Mentally Disordered Offenders ◽  
Mentally Disordered ◽  
Mentally Disordered Offender ◽  
Offending Behaviour ◽  
The Mind

There is a long-standing policy of diversion of mentally disordered offenders (MDOs) from the criminal justice system to care by mental health services. Care of the MDO presents specific challenges to the non-forensic practitioner. These include the need to understand the workings of the criminal justice system and the specific legal issues presented by an offender, the salience of risk, and its management in the mind of the courts and novel additional ethical dilemmas that arise. The importance of substance misuse as a factor in offending behaviour is emphasized, and its implications are explored. In addition, the MDO may present with clinical problems that are unfamiliar. Key principles of management are set out. These include developing a clear understanding of the patient and their world, excellent communication between all those involved, and rapid intervention when there is cause for concern. Staff working with an MDO require adequate supervision and support.

Care of the Mentally Disordered Offender in the Community

2017 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Sex Offenders ◽  
The United States ◽  
Pharmacological Therapy ◽  
Community Treatment ◽  
Clinical Aspects ◽  
Mentally Disordered Offenders ◽  
Mentally Disordered ◽  
Recent Developments ◽  
Mentally Disordered Offender

This book examines the care of the mentally disordered offender in the community from a number of perspectives: the social, administrative, and clinical context; clinical aspects of care; and the relationships between psychiatric services for mentally disordered offenders and other agencies. It incorporates recent developments in treatment and policy, including an international analysis of the use of community treatment orders, which remain controversial and divide opinion. In the United States, efforts to improve treatment have focussed on improving continuity of care between prison and the community, and the book examines US jail and prison policy. Current UK health policy as applied to the mentally disordered offender is explained. Risk and risk thinking is a theme that runs through the book and is considered in terms of its effect on society, its influence on policy, and in terms of how risk assessment is applied in everyday clinical practice. Developments in psychodynamic psychotherapy and cognitive treatments for mentally disordered offenders are discussed, including consideration of the risk-need-responsivity model, which has become increasingly influential. The treatment of sex offenders and personality disorder offenders is considered specifically, as is pharmacological therapy. Most mentally disordered offenders are managed in the community by the Community Mental Health Team (CMHT). The role of the CMHT and its interface with specialist community forensic teams is considered, as is the interaction between mental health services and other agencies and the legal context within which they operate.

A Tribute to the Late William J. Curran

1996 ◽  
Vol 24 (3) ◽  
pp. 274-275
Author(s):  
O. Lawrence ◽  
J.D. Gostin
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Health Care ◽  
Mental Illness ◽  
United Nations ◽  
Mental Health Care ◽  
Harvard University ◽  
Legal Medicine ◽  
General Assembly ◽  
International Institute ◽  
University Professor

In the summer of 1979, a group of experts on law, medicine, and ethics assembled in Siracusa, Sicily, under the auspices of the International Commission of Jurists and the International Institute of Higher Studies in Criminal Science, to draft guidelines on the rights of persons with mental illness. Sitting across the table from me was a quiet, proud man of distinctive intelligence, William J. Curran, Frances Glessner Lee Professor of Legal Medicine at Harvard University. Professor Curran was one of the principal drafters of those guidelines. Many years later in 1991, after several subsequent re-drafts by United Nations (U.N.) Rapporteur Erica-Irene Daes, the text was adopted by the U.N. General Assembly as the Principles for the Protection of Persons with Mental Illness and for the Improvement of Mental Health Care. This was the kind of remarkable achievement in the field of law and medicine that Professor Curran repeated throughout his distinguished career.

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