A comparison of long-term medium secure patients within NHS and private and charitable sector units in England.

Background: In England, forensic psychiatric hospital services are provided at three security levels: high, medium and low. All are publicly funded and similarly regulated, but medium and low secure services are provided in the private and charitable (PCS) sector as well as the National Health Service (NHS). Originally, medium secure hospital services were conceived as for up to 2 years' inpatient stay, but numbers of longer stay patients have been rising.

Characteristics of patients admitted to psychiatric intensive care units.

Objective: A paucity of research exists on the types of patients admitted to psychiatric intensive care units (PICUs), which is important in terms of identifying patient needs, training and service provision. Questions have also been raised as to whether or not ethnic minorities are overrepresented in these units.

Method: A literature review using MeSH headings from a wealth of databases was performed to identify such studies.