Far from Home: Women’s Experiences of Being in Secure Forensic Inpatient Services

Abstract

Specialist secure mental health inpatient service provision for women in England and Wales is limited, and beds are often commissioned in out-of-area services to meet their mental health and risk management needs. In North Wales, there are no NHS beds for women at any secure level, and most women are placed out-of-area in South Wales or England. The current study aimed to explore the experiences of women from North Wales who had resided in out-of-area secure inpatient services, using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) methodology. Participants described the challenges that they and their families experienced when in services at a great distance from their home areas. Services responded to women’s expressions of distress with restrictive interventions, including physical restraint and seclusion, exacerbating their sense of isolation. Participants voiced a desire to return home and viewed returning to Wales as indicative of progress they had made. This is thought to be the first study involving women from across the secure pathway, from high secure to the community. The findings are explored in relation to existing literature and study limitations are discussed.