Our Next Seminar “Enhancing Outcomes for Offenders who have Mental Disorder: Tailoring Community Sentences” will be held on Tuesday 3rd December 2024, 5-7pm.
This will be a free virtual event via Zoom. Spaces are limited on a first come basis.
To book your space please visit our Ticket Tailor page here.
Speakers:
Pamela Taylor CBE
Mignon French
Dr Clare Bingham
Dr Louise Robinson
Pamela Taylor CBE
Pamela is Professor of Forensic Psychiatry in the School of Medicine, Cardiff University and consultant forensic psychiatrist in Abertawe Bro Morgannyg and Cardiff & Vale University Health Boards, and forensic psychiatry advisor to the Chief Medical Officer for Wales.
She is a fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences. She leads the Offender Health Research Network-Cymru (OHRN-C) and is a member of the scientific council of the Dutch Expertise Center for Forensic Psychiatry. Her main research themes include understanding associations between mental illness and violence and meeting the needs of alcohol misusing offenders.
She is lead editor of Criminal Behaviour and Mental Health and international editor of Behavioral Sciences and the Law. Her books include Violence in Society (1993), Couples in Care and Custody (edited with Tom Swan, 1999), Personality disorder and serious offending (edited with Chris Newrith & Clive Meux, 2006), Forensic psychiatry, clinical, legal and ethical issues (1993, 2014, edited with John Gunn)
Mignon French
Mignon French is a jointly qualified general and psychiatric nurse who has worked across the mental health sector for over 30 years.
Her professional interest in Criminal Justice, mental health and associated vulnerabilities has further developed over the past 15 years. In 2014 she was central to developing the first Mental Health Treatment Requirement (MHTR) pilot in Milton Keynes which provided the foundation for the current NHS England MHTR Programme and more recently takes a lead for the development of the mental health programme across health and justice.
Mignon is also a Magistrate Chair in Northamptonshire and takes an active lead in highlighting vulnerability issues by providing specialist knowledge about mental health and associated vulnerabilities.
Dr Clare Bingham
Dr Louise Robinson
About this webinar:
Some mental disorders put people at higher than average risk of criminal offending. A few people in this position may be sent to hospital. Most are not and it is hard to find optimal services to promote the health and future safety of those not eligible for in-patient treatment. Many get sent to prison, so people with mental disorders are over represented there and suicide and self-harm rates rising. For a substantial number there are safe and effective community alternatives but these are rarely used for people who need specialist psychiatric treatment.
Laws in England and Wales and in Scotland allows for people convicted of an offence that could result in a prison sentence not only to have that sentence suspended or to be placed under a community sentence, but also to have those sentences tailored to meet their special needs and risks. Courts may add requirements or conditions to a community sentence – for example placing a restriction on where the person may travel or imposing a curfew. There are three possible treatment requirements – for mental health, for drug rehabilitation or for alcohol treatment. Before any of these three requirements may be added, however, the person concerned must agree to them as must a consultant psychiatrist or psychologist and a probation officer. If all do, then a court may order, in effect, a contract between these parties for a specified period of up to three years.
Such arrangements for formal partnerships between probation, health and an offender-patient have been available for several decades, but take up remains low. We will explore model delivery and experience of being under such an arrangement and evidence to date of effectiveness in terms of both criminal justice and clinical outcomes. We will look at a national programme in England that has substantially improved uptake of the arrangement for people who need primary health care in such circumstances. This has improved access at this level but further highlighted the difficulty in giving people who are seriously ill this opportunity for change. We will explore one developing model to support increased uptake of the arrangement for women who need specialist mental health services (secondary health care) across Greater London. Finally we will provide an early view of new research into meeting the needs of the wider range people of people needing secondary mental health services while enhancing community safety and, ultimately reducing health and justice system costs.