On the admittance of forensic patients to general psychiatric wards

Abstract

In Germany, due to an increasing number of "hospital order sentences," the capacities of forensic hospitals are exhausted. In the late 1990s,general psychiatric hospitals admitted a remarkable number of mentally disturbed offenders. In this study,data of 140 patients treated in general psychiatric hospitals in the German lower Rhine region are presented. These patients clearly differ from those treated in forensic hospitals. Approximately 60% of them suffer from schizophrenic psychosis. Only a few reveal a long antisocial background, a severe personality disorder, or a sexual offence as an index crime. Though the staff in the general psychiatric units often complain about the circumstances of patients' admittance to the hospitals, in about half of the cases they do not agree with a transferring of their patients to a forensic hospital. The results of this study are discussed in regard to general questions of organizing forensic psychiatric treatment.