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The treatment of substance use amongst mentally disordered offenders (MDOs) remains a challenge for secure forensic mental health services. The purpose of this paper is to present an integrated three-stage substance use treatment programme (SUTP) for male and female MDO’s in medium security.

In total, 45 (72.6 per cent) MDO’s were referred (39 males/6 females). Standardised outcome measures were administered pre-SUTP, post-SUTP and at one year follow-up. Abstinence rates and location was determined via case notes at three year follow-up.

All MDO’s had a past history of substance use, approximately three-quarters reporting problematic use prior to admission. Over half completed all three SUTP stages, less than 5 per cent dropping out during active treatment. The SUTP supported abstinence throughout the one year follow-up period and significantly improved MDO’s adaptive beliefs about substances and craving by one year follow-up amongst attendees. At three years, most MDO’s were in the community and almost three-quarters were abstinent. There was no significant difference in abstinent rates between community and hospital. There was a non-significant trend suggesting SUTP attendance supported abstinence. Both male and female participants appear to have benefited from treatment and satisfaction was high, reflecting the specific aims and objectives of treatment.

The small non-randomised sample from one area limits the generalisability of findings and statistical power.

Findings indicate further support for the limited evidence base that small but clinically meaningful and maintained changes to problematic substance use are possible following integrated substance use treatment for male and female MDO’s.

This study examines the implementation of the recovery model or ‘philosophy’ in a secure NHS forensic service. Twenty‐six (86.7%) staff and seventeen (70.8%) mentally disordered offenders (MDOs) were interviewed in Spring 2009 from the rehabilitation and pre‐discharges units in a medium secure forensic service in Kent, UK. Their views on recovery were measured using the Developing Recovery Enhancing Environments Measure (DREEM: Ridgeway & Press, 2001). Staff consistently rated all 24 elements of recovery as more important than the MDOs. Staff also rated the elements of recovery as better implemented, except Intimacy and Sexuality. There was a significant effect of MDOs' forensic history (restriction status and index offence type) on ratings of how well elements of recovery were implemented. Staff and MDOs rated all elements of recovery as at least moderately important (above median value). The implications of the recovery philosophy in forensic mental health services are discussed.

What does it mean to say there's an evidence base for supported employment? One approach, known as Individual placement and support or IPS for short, has been extensively evaluated and proven to help high numbers of people with severe mental health problems into work. But there is still little evidence of this approach being put into practice here in the UK. This article recalls a visit this year to the UK by Professor Bob Drake and colleagues from Dartmouth, New Hampshire, USA where the approach was developed, and explains the principles of supported employment and what it can mean for service users, staff, families and employers.

Substance use contributes to the development of criminogenic behaviour and mental health problems. However, the extent and severity of substance use and the relationship to offending in mentally disordered offenders (MDOs) admitted to regional medium secure units has received relatively limited research attention.

Case note reviews (n=57) and semi-structured interviews (n=21) of past substance use levels, substance use problems and forensic history were conducted at a medium secure unit in South East England.

Results highlighted the high prevalence of substance use among MDOs, especially when determined by self-report. At least one-third (case note review) or almost half (self-report) used alcohol at the time of their index offence, although many failed to recognise use as problematic. Significant correlations were found between heavy past use of alcohol and use of alcohol at time of offending. Past heavy use of alcohol significantly predicted whether or not the individual was convicted of a violent offence.

The small sample from one area limits the generalisability of findings as substance use demographics vary. Methodological shortcomings were noted when comparing data from self-report and case note information. Retrospective recall bias may influence past perceptions of substance use.

These preliminary findings indicate the importance of assessing substance use in MDOs and considering its relationship to offending behaviour in treatment and risk management.

Although anecdotally substance use is known to be high and likely to be related to offending behaviour amongst MDOs, there is little previous research highlighting this.

The main aim of this paper is to describe the content, structure and preliminary evaluation of a new Good Lives sexual offender treatment group (SOTG) for male mentally disordered offenders.

As evaluation and work on the SOTG is necessarily ongoing, case study descriptions of each patient who attended the SOTG and of their progress throughout SOTG are described.

Overall, the case study progress reports suggest that mentally disordered male patients made some notable progress on SOTG despite their differential and complex needs. In particular, attention to each patient's life goals and motivators appeared to play a key role in promoting treatment engagement. Furthermore, patients with lower intelligence quotient and/or indirect pathways required additional support to understand the links between the Good Lives Model (GLM) and their own risk for sexual offending.

Further evaluations of SOTG groups, that incorporate higher numbers of participants and adequate control groups, are required before solid conclusions and generalisations can be made.

Practitioners should consider providing additional support to clients when implementing any future SOTGs for mentally disordered patients.

This is the first paper to outline and describe implementation of the GLM in the sexual offender treatment of mentally disordered male patients group format. As such, it will be of interest to any professionals involved in the facilitation of sexual offender treatment within this population.

St Helens Co‐operative Society has an annual turnover of more than £21m, although its geographical base consists of a relatively small area of 20 sq miles extending from St Helens at the hub to the western edge of Liverpool and north to include the new town of Skelmersdale and the market town of Ormskirk. The society includes 20 food shops, two supermarkets, and a department store in St Helens town centre with around 80,000 sq ft of selling area. More importantly, from the point of view of this paper, the society also runs two superstores — one at Boundary Road (opened late 1979), and the other at Newton (opened autumn 1983). It is the Boundary Road unit which forms the theme of this paper, first delivered by Ron Wilson at EPoS 83 in September. It has the unique distinction of being the site of the first Hugin NSC Datachecker installation in Europe — to be closely followed by the Newton superstore (not discussed here). The Boundary Road unit is around 40,000 sq ft of which 28,000 is sales area; of this some 18,000 sq ft is food, and the remaining non‐food merchandise includes clothing, hardware, footwear and ERT. Ron Wilson's paper is of particular interest since his society's decision to “go scanning” arose from what he heard as a delegate at EPoS 82. He was already interested in scanning and trying to decide whether the alleged benefits were attainable in reality, and if so when would be the right time to take the plunge. It was as a result of what he saw, heard, and discussed with other reatailers at EPoS 82 that convinced him of the Tightness of the decision. Above all else it was a remarkably speedy operation; the idea was conceived in September 1982; in May the society went live with scanning. This paper outlines the problems that had to be considered, describes the search for the most appropriate system, and lists the benefits so far realised.