Abstract
Swift medically led scientifically informed responses to the Covid-19 epidemic nationally have been demonstrably superior to other, non-scientific approaches. In forensic psychiatry and across all psychiatric services, urgent and clinically led responses have underlined redundancies and confusions in the governance of mental health services and a vacuum in policy makers. For the future, a greater emphasis on services for patients with schizophrenia and other severe, enduring mental disorders must aim at reducing standardised mortality ratios, managing risk of violence and improving hard outcomes such as symptomatic remission, functional recovery and forensic recovery of autonomy. This will require more use of information technology at service level and at national level where Scandinavian-style population-based data linkage research must now become legally sanctioned and necessary. A national research and development centre for medical excellence in forensic psychiatry is urgently required and is complimentary to and different from quality management.
Highlights
The aim of forensic psychiatrists is to manage the COVID-19 crisis in secure hospitals and prisons to prevent clusters where possible, to provide effective medical assessment and treatment where necessary, whilst continuing to manage the mental health and violence risk posed by the vulnerable and stigmatised patients we serve
The future can be bright for patients in forensic psychiatry services
New teaching and research programmes will be an intrinsic part of the new hospital (Kennedy et al 2018)
Summary
Forensic psychiatry and Covid-19: accelerating transformation in forensic psychiatry. Swift medically led scientifically informed responses to the Covid-19 epidemic nationally have been demonstrably superior to other, non-scientific approaches. A greater emphasis on services for patients with schizophrenia and other severe, enduring mental disorders must aim at reducing standardised mortality ratios, managing risk of violence and improving hard outcomes such as symptomatic remission, functional recovery and forensic recovery of autonomy. This will require more use of information technology at service level and at national level where Scandinavian-style population-based data linkage research must become legally sanctioned and necessary. Received 20 April 2020; Revised 12 May 2020; Accepted 16 May 2020; First published online 21 May 2020
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