Community residence on discharge from a medium secure unit: where have all the patients gone?

Abstract

There is little research into the patterns of residence of patients leaving forensic psychiatric services. This paper reports the findings of a retrospective review of records of all discharges from the Norvic Clinic between 1984 and 2006, conducted to determine the area of residence of patients discharged from this medium secure unit, and the factors contributing. Patients lived considerably closer to the clinic on discharge than they had on admission, and this increase was concentrated in a few geographical areas; also, 76% of patients moved area at some point, and this was more common after longer admissions and for patients admitted from high secure hospitals or subject to restriction orders. Patients were discharged disproportionately to localities immediately surrounding the clinic. The possible effects on local services, and the need for resource allocation to allow for this, are discussed.

Keywords:

• relocation
• area of residence
• patterns of discharge
• community care
• parallel services
• resource allocation