Screening for incontinence in a secure psychiatric service for women.

Incontinence is associated with mental illness and neuroleptic medications but diagnosis and treatment is often poor or non-existent. Problems of incontinence are compounded in secure psychiatric services for women by poor health, obesity, and a sedentary lifestyle. Addressing the physical health of this group necessitates a more accurate picture of the nature, incidence, and management of incontinence.

Living with Mental Illness: A Cognitive Behavioural Group Psycho-education Programme with Women in Secure Settings.

Unlabelled: The provision of psycho-educational groups for people diagnosed with schizophrenia is an important part of successful treatment. The value of such interventions is less clearly established in secure settings with no reports on women. Gender differences in the manifestation of schizophrenia highlight the importance of a gender-specific intervention.

Treatment progress in medium security hospital settings for women: changes in symptoms, personality and service need from admission to discharge.

Background: Service evaluations of medium secure hospital facilities for women are underrepresented in the extant literature.

Hypothesis: That positive changes in symptoms, personality traits and service need would be evident between admission and discharge among women in a medium security hospital service.

Methods: A pre-test/post-test design was used, with comparisons made between admission and pre-discharge points on a variety of measures of psychiatric symptoms and personality traits.

Transitions of females from adolescent secure to adult secure services: a qualitative pilot project.

Background: For young people, the transition from adolescent to adult services is particularly problematic. This may be particularly difficult for female service users.

Aims: The aim of this study is to gain a fuller account of the experience of young people during transition from adolescent services to adult services and to add to the knowledge around the transitional process.

Engagement in psychosocial treatment: its relationship to outcome and care pathway progress for women in medium-secure settings.

Background: Engaging patients in treatment in secure settings is a major challenge. Engagement is associated with a shorter length of stay, whereas treatment non-completion is associated with an increased risk of recidivism.

Aims: The aims of this study were to assess differences between high and low treatment attendees in a women's medium secure unit and to compare progress over the course of their stay.

Factors predictive of length of stay for women in medium secure settings.

Attempts to understand determinates of length of stay in secure settings has been given increased impetus by minimum standard setting and payment by results initiatives. Factors predictive of length of stay in the extant literature include, index offence, previous engagement in therapy, symptomatology, personality pathology and need. These factors were assessed for their predictive validity in a sample of 70 consecutive admissions to a women's medium secure service.

Identification of nutritional risk by nursing staff in secure psychiatric settings: reliability and validity of St Andrew's Nutrition Screening Instrument.

Nutrition screening is the first-line approach to addressing the nutritional needs of service users and has been recommended as best practice by several authoritative and regulatory bodies. A simple and comprehensive screening tool, the St Andrew's Nutrition Screening Instrument (SANSI), was developed for use in an inpatient secure psychiatric setting. The aim of this study was to test the screening tool for reliability and validity.

Social problem-solving interventions in medium secure settings for women.

Problem-solving interventions are a feature of overall medium secure treatment programmes. However, despite the relevance of such treatment to personality disorder there are few descriptions of such interventions for women. Beneficial effects for women who completed social problem-solving group treatment were evident on a number of psychometric assessments.

Women in medium secure care: tracking treatment progress for changes in risk profiles and treatment engagement.

The treatment and risk management programmes in a women's medium secure service are described. Changes in risk profiles and its relationship to treatment engagement are examined in a cohort of women during their stay in a medium secure service. Findings show that clinically significant reductions in risk behaviours were paralleled by increases in treatment engagement.

Dealing with Feelings: the effectiveness of cognitive behavioural group treatment for women in secure settings.

Background: Women in secure psychiatric settings have gender specific treatment needs. The current study examined the feasibility of a Dealing with Feelings Skills Group training for dual diagnosis women admitted to a medium secure setting.

Method: A pre-test--post-test design was used to evaluate a group programme adapted from dialectical behaviour therapy skills training.