Power and control: forensic community mental health nurses' perceptions of team-working, legal sanction and compliance.

Abstract

This is the second of two papers reporting on a descriptive mixed methods study of community forensic mental health nurses' experiences of restriction orders and supervised discharge mechanisms. Forensic community mental health nurses (FCMHNs) have a body of experience of working with mentally disordered offenders in the community. A number of these patients will be subject to conditions on discharge. This in effect acts as compulsory community treatment with the sanction of recall to hospital. This paper examines nurses' perceptions of team-working, legal powers and their effects upon compliance. Findings include that FCMHNs express general satisfaction with their input to decision-making but some concerns were raised that challenge the ethic of team-working. Respondents were broadly in favour of increased professional responsibility, although this may be related to a quest for status. A pragmatic if equivocal support for the use of compulsion in community mental healthcare was also expressed.