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Patients with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) present with specific assessment, specific difficulties, needs and therapeutic issues and therefore are a challenging group for forensic services. Given the challenge that individuals with ASD present to forensic services, the suggested increase in the number of this group within this setting and the relatively little amount of research which suggests they face a number of difficulties within the prison environment, the purpose of this paper is to identify and review all the studies which have been carried out investigating any aspect of ASD in relation to secure hospital settings.

Seven internet-based bibliographic databases were used for the present review. The review followed the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analyses guidelines.

A total of 12 studies were included in this review; 3 looked at the prevalence of ASD in secure psychiatric hospitals. One study evaluated the clinical utility of the AQ screening tool to assess self-reported autistic traits in secure psychiatric settings. Three explored any type of characteristics of patients with ASD detained in secure psychiatric hospitals. One study investigated the experiences or quality of life of patients with an ASD detained in secure psychiatric care. Two studies investigated awareness, knowledge and/or views regarding patients with ASD held by staff working within secure psychiatric hospitals. Lastly, three studies (one of which was also included in the prevalence category above) looked at the effectiveness of interventions or treatment of patients with ASD in secure psychiatric hospitals. Clinical recommendations and future research directions are discussed.

To the author’s knowledge, this is the first review to explore what research has been carried out looking specifically at patients with ASD in relation to secure forensic settings.

This research attempts to explore in‐patient perspectives on the long‐stay, medium‐secure hospital wards in which they are based. Semi‐structured interviews focused on the care provided by the hospital in comparison with the high‐secure hospitals from which the participants had been transferred. Questions focused on the participants' perceptions of recovery and the scope for it at both sites.The data suggests that participants identify increased scope for recovery at the long‐stay, medium‐secure facility, and that this is promoted by increased flexibility due to less emphasis on security. Important factors discussed by participants were increased access to a range of activities, graded access into the community, the different atmosphere in the hospital sites and the differences in potential for developing trusting relationships with staff and fellow in‐patients.

Self-harm, including death from suicide, remains a significant public health challenge. The prison population is known to be a high-risk group for self-harm and suicide. The purpose of this study is to explore the trends in the frequency of self-harm over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic within a high-secure hospital. The authors hypothesised that the pandemic could adversely affect the mental health of patients, which could increase the rates of self-harm. Reasons for changes in the frequency of self-harm and the strategies used in response to the pandemic were also investigated.

This paper encompasses findings from a quality improvement project that investigated self-harming behaviours from February 2020 to February 2021 in a high-secure psychiatric hospital. Incidents of self-harm were recorded based on the hospital’s ward structure. Data was collected on the incidence of self-harm rates over the COVID-19 pandemic, with a focus on how the pandemic may have had an effect on self-harm.

This paper found an increase in the incidents of self-harm during the initial stages of the pandemic. The first national lockdown period yielded a rise in self-harm incidents from pre-COVID levels. The frequency of self-harm reduced following the first lockdown and returned to pre-COVID levels. The authors explored the psychological effects of COVID, isolation, interpersonal dynamics and changes in the delivery of care as reasons for these trends.

This study demonstrates the substantial challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic to secure psychiatric services. Having an awareness of how the pandemic can impact on self-harm is important, as it allows the correct balance of restriction of our patients’ liberty to a degree deemed necessary to control the pandemic and the delivery of effective patient care. The key clinical implications include the importance of direct face-to-face patient contact, effective communication, therapeutic interventions and activities, the psychological impact of quarantine and the influence the pandemic can have on an individual’s function of self-harm.

This paper is the first, to the authors’ knowledge, to explore the impact of COVID-19 in a high-security psychiatric hospital. The authors also explore possible explanations for the changes in the trends of self-harm and include the consideration of strategies for improving the prevention and management of self-harm in high-secure settings during a pandemic.

Abstract High secure services treat patients who may have very complex clinical needs under conditions of security. Until very recently such services were run and managed on the periphery of the structures and accountability arrangements put in place for the rest of the NHS, becoming isolated from modern thinking and evidence‐based therapeutic practice. A high percentage of patients in the high secure system were assessed as no longer requiring that level of security.Following an inquiry at Ashworth hospital which reported in 1999, steps were taken to bring these services into the mainstream of the NHS, to decentralise further the commissioning and performance management and to develop the capacity and capability to enable discharge of patients to lower levels of security. New partnerships and new relationships have resulted in an NHS Plan target of 400 patients discharged from high security.The inclusion of high security services within Health & Offender Partnerships creates a framework for managing proposed and ongoing changes. High security services are a necessary part of our mental health system and should be valued and developed. This paper outlines how quality improvements will be enabled and embedded.

Substance misuse (SMU) is widely prevalent in mentally disordered offenders and is linked with violence and offending behaviour. There is however, a scarcity of literature dedicated to investigating SMU and its clinical correlates in relation to patients detained within high secure hospital settings. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the extent and severity of SMU and corresponding treatment needs in patients with a primary diagnosis of personality disorder (PD) in comparison with mental illness (MI) in a high secure hospital.

The responsible clinicians of all patients (n=240) detained in a high secure hospital were asked to record information using a SMU screening questionnaire over a ten-month period. Details requested included substance type, history of past use and assessment and treatment needs. Data were recorded and then analysed: descriptive statistics were conducted to report historical use of substances, cross tabulations and χ² analysis explored the relationship between SMU and treatment status and diagnosis and offending behaviour and a means comparison analysis was employed to explore length of stay and treatment of SMU.

A total of 230 questionnaires were returned (95 per cent of the patient population). A history of SMU was reported in 88.6 per cent of the sample, with alcohol and cannabis misuse being the most prevalent. At least one substance had been abused by 74.3 per cent of the sample. In two-thirds of the sample, SMU was linked with the onset of mental health problems and symptom exacerbation, including violence. Interestingly, patients with a diagnosis of MI as compared with PD were more likely to have used substances (93.3 per cent compared to 81.9 per cent) and were more likely to need treatment for SMU (64.3 per cent compared to 36.8 per cent). In those with an MI diagnosis, SMU was more likely to be linked with violence and index offence (74.3 per cent compared to 59.0 per cent).

SMU is significantly prevalent in high risk mentally disordered offenders and linked to onset of mental health problems and offending. Patients with schizophrenia have a higher prevalence of SMU than PD and are likely to be more in need of treatment. Violence and offending are more likely to be related to SMU in schizophrenia than in PD.

This study substantiates existing evidence that SMU contributes to mental health problems and criminogenic behaviour. Furthermore, the study reports new findings that characterize differences of the relationship of SMU to offending in schizophrenia and PD in forensic psychiatric patients presenting to a high secure hospital.

In the present climate of risk assessment and management, the risk posed by the mentally disordered offender might be considered central to the role of mental health professionals working with this population. To discipline risk is a challenge that involves making something uncertain somehow quantifiable, so that decisions about the short‐longer‐term future of another individual can be made and justified (Rose, 1998). Although unauthorised patient absence from secure hospitals in the UK is an infrequent phenomenon, there are often prominent repercussions, perpetuated by negative media coverage, often resulting in responses from the highest political level. This article will attempt to highlight known statistics on absconsion from secure hospitals, including frequency and consequences, and impact of negative media coverage and various reviews, inquiries and proposed recommendations, which have resulted in the proposed reforms of the Mental Health Act 1983. Finally, the article will outline the work conducted by the social work department at Chadwick Lodge and Eaglestone View (medium secure hospitals) in the development of an 'absconsion pack'. This development provides an example of safe practice through its use of collaborative inter‐professional and multidisciplinary team working, resulting in a procedure that should reduce the risks in the event of an absconsion from a medium secure hospital. The wider implications of this work will be discussed.

Patients detained in high-security psychiatric hospitals are particularly vulnerable to excessive restrictions and exploitation. In the UK, the care quality commission (CQC) monitors and regulates forensic healthcare provision. The purpose of this study is to identify key concerns highlighted in CQC inspection reports of the three high-secure hospitals in England between 2010 and 2018.

In this qualitative study, 49 CQC inspection reports from three high-secure hospitals were subjected to thematic analysis.

Five central themes emerged: staffing and management; restrictive practice; physical environment and ward atmosphere; patients’ needs and involvement in their care; and legal and statutory matters. There was some variation in the overall quality of care between the hospitals. Positive staff–patient interactions and good practice in assessing and delivering care were consistently observed. However, enduring staff shortages within each hospital were experienced negatively and sometimes co-occurred with concerns over restrictive practices, poor care-plan procedure and inadequate legal documentation. Over time, Rampton and Broadmoor Hospitals appeared to worsen with regard to staffing levels, staff morale and management involvement. While services progressed over time in providing patients with access to advocacy and information concerning their rights, in some recent inspections it remained unclear whether patients were adequately involved in the care-plan process.

These findings provide preliminary indicators for areas requiring further attention from policymakers, clinicians and advocates.

This study appears to be the first systematic analysis of key concerns expressed in CQC reports of English high-security hospitals.

There is a dearth of research exploring pathways to episodes of deliberate self‐harm (DSH) within mentally ill men in high‐secure hospitals. This study aims to explore pathway(s) to episodes of self‐harm experienced by this group over the course of their life.

A total of seven men with a history of repetitive DSH participated in audio‐taped semi‐structured interviews. Transcribed interviews were analysed using grounded theory methods.

Two pathways to episodes of DSH emerged and were termed: the relief, and the response to mental health problems pathways. Participation within a dyadic suicide pact emerged as an unexpected theme.

There were a number of limitations within this study. Participants did not describe DSH episodes, which occurred within the high‐secure hospital and it was unclear as to the stage of their illness or whether co‐morbid difficulties were present during the episodes of DSH. Further research is required to substantiate the two pathways to episodes of DSH found within this study.

The present study offers a theoretical framework for clinicians working with mentally ill men within high‐secure hospitals, who have a history of DSH and identifies the need to carefully assess each individual episode of DSH.

This study is the first to explore pathways to episodes of self‐harm as experienced by mentally ill men within a high‐secure hospital by interviewing patients directly.

The purpose of this paper is to describe service users’ perspectives on the difference between high secure long-stay forensic psychiatric services in the Netherlands and high secure forensic psychiatric care in England. These perspectives are relevant in considering the benefits of a similar long-stay service in England.

A current in-patient detained in a high secure hospital in England and other mental health service users and carers with experience in forensic-psychiatric settings were asked to watch a documentary on a Dutch high secure long-stay service. Then they were invited to make comparisons between this service and high secure care in England. These perspectives were gained in the context of their membership of the Service User Reference Group of an externally funded study on long-stay in forensic-psychiatric settings in England.

The small group of participants highlighted the importance of relational security, meaningful occupation, autonomy, positive therapeutic relationships with staff and a homely environment for those with lengthy admissions and perceived these to be better met in the Dutch service. These factors might contribute to improved quality of life that services should strive to achieve, especially for those with prolonged admissions.

Perspectives of service users with lived experience of long-stay in forensic settings are important in informing service developments. Lessons can be learnt from initiatives to improve the quality of life in long-stay services in other countries and consideration be given on how to best manage this unique group.

To the authors’ knowledge this is the first study asking service users about their view on forensic services in other countries. The findings suggest that service users have valuable contributions to make to aid service developments and should be involved in similar such exercises in the future.

A significant number of people held within the secure forensic hospital estate in this country suffer from neuropsychological deficits (e.g. Lowings, 2010; Williams et al., 2010). These deficits, many of them cognitive, have a detrimental impact on patient's abilities to benefit from psycho-educational materials thereby slowing the progress of their rehabilitation. Understanding these difficulties enables interventions to be more effectively targeted and facilitated to the patients’ cognitive strengths. It was against the backdrop of the evidence that a review was commissioned into neuropsychological activity at Rampton Hospital.

The review of the neuropsychological assessment activity was confined to the male patients residing within Mental Health Services (MHS) and the National High Secure Learning Disability Service (NHSLDS) of the hospital. With regards to the MHS, 129 patient files were examined in order to identify the volume of neuropsychological assessment previously undertaken and the make up of the neuropsychological test batteries administered with the current patient group. With regard to the NHSLDS 48 files were similarly examined. In addition, MHS psychologists were surveyed to assess their knowledge of patients within that service who to their knowledge had previously suffered an acquired brain injury (ABI) or had suffered a significant neurological illness likely to have resulted in cognitive impairment.

A scoping exercise identified that a significant amount of neuropsychological assessment was being undertaken, albeit in an unstructured way. This led to a number of patients being subjected to a significant delay before the need for neuropsychological testing and rehabilitation possibilities became apparent. There was a huge variance on when a patient was tested ranging from one month to 14 years and the size of the test battery used, with the number of tests conducted per patient ranging between one single test to 16 tests during a patients stay at the hospital.

Opportunities to more appropriately place patients based upon their abilities could be achieved if the hospital were to adopt a policy of conducting neuropsychological assessments, including cognitive functioning, for all patients upon admission to the hospital. A proportion of patients were known to have had a ABI or a significant illness likely to have resulted in cognitive impairment. This was considered to be an underrepresentation and the taking of a thorough history specifically covering ABI and specific illnesses known to have an impact on cognitive ability and behaviour was also recommended.

In light of this review, services are to take a more systematic approach to assessing neuropsychological difficulties. Consideration is being given to neuropsychological screening becoming part of the admission process.