The Good Lives Model: A New Paradigm for Forensic Mental Health

Abstract

The Good Lives Model (GLM) is a contemporary theory of offender rehabilitation that has the dual foci of promoting offenders’ goals and reducing their risk of reoffending. It has proved popular with practitioners working with offenders in correctional services but its potential as a rehabilitation framework for mentally disordered offenders (MDOs) in forensic mental health services has been largely untapped. The purpose of this article is to explore how the GLM can be theoretically augmented for use with offenders with mental illness and applied to MDOs in a forensic mental health setting. A case study is provided to illustrate how the enriched GLM can promote a cohesive and holistic approach to forensic rehabilitation that integrates risk, psychiatric treatment, and well-being perspectives. The potential benefits of utilizing the GLM as an overarching rehabilitation framework in forensic mental health are discussed and important points of difference from a traditional approach are highlighted. The authors conclude that the GLM represents a paradigm shift for forensic mental health whereby the person, rather than risk reduction and/or the treatment of mental illness, is at centre stage.