Abstract

SummaryThe last decade has seen clinicians and policy makers develop psychiatric intensive care units and low secure units from the so-called ‘special care wards’ of the 1980s and 1990s. Psychiatric intensive care units are for short-term care, while low secure units are for care for up to about 2 years. Department of Health standards have been set for these units. A national survey has shown that there are two main patient groups in the low secure units: patients on forensic sections coming down from medium secure units and those on civil sections who are transferred from general psychiatric facilities. Recent clinical opinion has emphasised the important role both psychiatric intensive care units and low secure units play in providing a bridge between forensic and general mental health services.

Highlights

  • The last decade has seen clinicians and policy makers develop psychiatric intensive care units and low secure units from the so-called ‘special care wards’of the 1980s and 1990s

  • When Zigmond (1995) asked ‘Special care wards: are they special?’, he described his experience as a Mental Health Act Commissioner visiting locked wards where staff were ‘brutalised’ and patients saw the unit as a ‘punishment ward’

  • A more likely situation would be that psychiatric intensive care unit staff would help train colleagues working in other parts of the mental health service

Read more

Summary

Introduction

The last decade has seen clinicians and policy makers develop psychiatric intensive care units and low secure units from the so-called ‘special care wards’of the 1980s and 1990s. These units - initially often called interim secure units - were meant to manage three types of patients: those discharged from special hospitals, those transferred from prisons and those general psychiatric patients who were too disturbed for the local open wards.

Results
Conclusion
Full Text
Paper version not known

Talk to us

Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have

Schedule a call