Qualify of Life of Forensic Psychiatric Inpatients

Abstract

In this article, the quality of life (QoL) of mentally disordered offenders was investigated. The data of 44 forensic psychiatric inpatients were analyzed using the Lancashire Quality of Life Profile (LQoLP), Rehabilitation Evaluation Hall and Baker (REHAB), and the Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (PCL-R). Outcome on the LQoLP was compared with data of hospitalized male psychiatric patients. Results show that the QoL of forensic psychiatric inpatients was particularly low as to their living conditions and their health. However, compared to general psychiatric patients they encountered fewer problems with envisioning their life as having some meaningful perspective. On six of the ten domains, nonpsychotic forensic psychiatric patients reported a lower, though nonsignificant, QoL as compared to the psychotic forensic psychiatric patients. Between psychopathic and nonpsychopathic forensic psychiatric patients no significant differences were found. A trend was found for the domain finances for which nonpsychopaths reported a lower quality of life. Our hypothesis that patients with a lower level of functioning will report a lower QoL was not confirmed in this study. However, a significant correlation between general behavior and global well-being was found. Future studies should further investigate the relation between quality of life of forensic psychiatric patients and recidivism, to gain more insight in whether (certain aspects of) QoL are associated with lower recidivism risks in the long run.

Reducing or Increasing Violence in Forensic Care: A Qualitative Study of Inpatient Experiences

“…Thereafter, all involved authors had frequent meetings to discuss the developing analysis and to determine the next steps. As Thorne et al (2004) advocate, the analytic procedure was characterized by a process of five stages, namely: comprehending, synthesizing, decontextualization, theorizing, and recontextualization of data (see Fig. 1).…”

“…Each transcript was analyzed using an interpretive description approach (Thorne, 2008;Thorne et al, 2004). Throughout the analytic process, questions regarding the contextual nature of the data were frequently explored to enrich the analytic process (Thorne et al, 2004).…”

“…Throughout the analytic process, questions regarding the contextual nature of the data were frequently explored to enrich the analytic process (Thorne et al, 2004). The data analysis was primarily performed by the first author (HO) and the second author (ÅA).…”

“…Therefore, an inductive approach was chosen, i.e. interpretive description (Thorne, Kirkham, & O´Flynn-Magee, 2004), which was based on applied as well as theoretical nursing. Ethical approval was obtained from the Regional Ethical Review Board at Umeå University (Dnr.…”

Long-Term Forensic Mental Health Services: An Exploratory Comparison of 18 European Countries

“…Providing efficient, effective treatment, beneficial for improving mental health as well as risk reduction and achieving a higher quality of life for patients, is challenging in a forensic environment, in which restrictions are placed upon patients Mason, 1999). It has been suggested that addressing quality of life for patients within a restrictive forensic psychiatric setting may have an important part to play in improving treatment outcomes and lowering recidivism risks in the long-term (Nieuwenhuizen & Nijman, 2009;Völlm, Bartlett, & McDonald, 2016). These competing concerns were, unsurprisingly, recognised by all country experts.…”