A demographic and clinical profile of prisoners accessing an assessment and treatment service within the offender personality disorder pathway

Abstract

ABSTRACT The Offender Personality Disorder (OPD) pathway enables men and women likely to have personality disorder to be identified and treated in prisons, secure hospitals and the community. The treatment services forming part of the OPD pathway aim to improve the psychological health, wellbeing, and relational skills of its target population. However, there is very little literature on the population that fall within the scope of the OPD pathway. This paper examines the clinical and risk profile of a cohort of male prisoners participating in a long term, high secure prison-based assessment and treatment service, the Beacon, which forms part of the national OPD pathway. Demographic information, psychiatric and offending history, personality disorder diagnosis, and details on trauma symptomatology was collected from a cohort of prisoners participating in the Beacon service. The paper considers the personality traits and mental health needs present in the population alongside key trauma-related difficulties. This paper demonstrates that the present cohort of the Beacon prisoners show evidence of complex emotional and interpersonal needs. Their experiences with trauma and associated symptoms were common, especially related to posttraumatic stress. Limitations are discussed.