Psychiatry: therapy and Interventions (Low secure forensic Patients) - Essay Example

nt of such patients with a possible history of being offenders in the eyes of law for actions that have originated from their seriously disturbed mental health (Forensic Psychiatry Section). Thus, according to Boardman and Parsonage, 2007, forensic services interact with individuals that are at the interface of law and mental health and are responsible for the assessment, treatment and clinical management of individuals with mental disorders, who may have committed grave offences or who may deemed as capable of committing such offences.

The history of mental asylums for the seriously mentally disturbed in the United Kingdom can be traced back to the Priory of St Mary of Bethlehem in London, which became the national hospital for the mentally disturbed in England. The essential interventions used in these times were locked cells or mechanical restraints. Significant changes in the treatment and interventions occurred in the mid-twentieth century. Two factors were responsible for this. The first factor was concern over the abuses that such mental patients underwent, leading to the Mental Act of 1959 and its guidelines for informal treatment for involuntary patients.

The second factor was the development of the first pharmacological intervention for mentally disturbed individuals in the form of chlorpromazine. These developments were responsible for unlocking of the hospital wards of most of the hospitals providing services to mentally disturbed patients (Beer, Pereira & Paton, 2007). By the 1970s the district general hospitals became a focal point for the provision of health services, but were found deficient in their ability to handle seriously mentally ill difficult patients.

The result was that such patients continued to languish in asylums, prisons, or special hospitals. This led to the development of the concept of secure facilities, which received a boost from the Butler Committee that went into the case of Graham Young, who was found guilty of murder, while