Effects of structural features of psychiatric hospital settings on coercive measures

Background and Objectives Involuntary hospital admissions and coercive measures are a long-lasting burden in psychiatry. Many efforts have been undertaken to diminish these wearing circumstances. With the Bochum “track system,” which is structured in mental health teams across inpatient and outpatient clinics without any closed admission wards, we would like to present a new way of facing coercion. To examine the effects of establishing the so-called Bochum “‘track system”’ regarding the presumed reduction of coercive measures within a naturalistic, quantitative pre- and post- comparison.

Isolation of patients in psychiatric hospitals in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic: An ethical, legal, and practical challenge.

Psychiatric inpatients are particularly vulnerable to the transmission and effects of COVID-19. As such, healthcare providers should implement measures to prevent its spread within mental health units, including adequate testing, cohorting, and in some cases, the isolation of patients. Respiratory isolation imposes a significant limitation on an individual's right to liberty, and should be accompanied by appropriate legal safeguards. This paper explores the implications of respiratory isolation in English law, considering the applicability of the common law doctrine of necessity, the Mental Capacity Act 2005, the Mental Health Act 1983, and public health legislation. We then interrogate the practicality of currently available approaches by applying them to a series of hypothetical cases. There are currently no 'neat' or practicable solutions to the problem of lawfully isolating patients on mental health units, and we discuss the myriad issues with both mental health and public health law approaches to the problem. We conclude by making some suggestions to policymakers.

Coercion in psychiatry: is it right to involuntarily treat inpatients with capacity?

Psychiatric inpatients with capacity may be treated paternalistically under the Mental Health Act 1983. This violates bodily autonomy and causes potentially significant harm to health and moral status, both of which may be long-lasting. I suggest that such harms may extend to killing moral persons through the impact of psychotropic drugs on psychological connectedness. Unsurprisingly, existing legislation is overwhelmingly disliked by psychiatric inpatients, the majority of whom have capacity. I present four arguments for involuntary treatment: individual safety, public safety, authentic wishes and protection of autonomy. I explore these through a case study: a patient with schizophrenia admitted to a psychiatric hospital under the Mental Health Act 1983 after an episode of self-poisoning. Through its discussion of preventative detention, the public safety argument articulates the (un)ethical underpinnings of the current position in English law. Ultimately, none of the four arguments are cogent-all fail to justify the current legal discrimination faced by psychiatric inpatients. I conclude against any use of involuntary treatment in psychiatric inpatients with capacity, endorsing the fusion approach where only psychiatric patients lacking capacity may be treated involuntarily.

Not just a one-man revolution: the multifaceted anti-asylum watershed in Italy.

The Italian psychiatric 'revolution' is the story of a range of flexible, changing formulas, exposed to many 'contaminations'. Historical reconstructions have remained anchored to the lure of a founding myth and an eponymous hero. This essay aims to shed light on the multi-faceted concept of the Italian 'moral management revolution'. We especially focus on: the circumstances which triggered the innovation in its various form; the 'prototypes' available in other countries which have been variously recombined in the different local contexts; the 'special path' of action strategies which has driven the change towards radical closure of the asylums; and the cause-effect relationship between the above 'special path' and several aspects of the current state of deadlock.

Return of the asylum.

Rates of involuntary admission are increasing in England. Personality disorder should be excluded as a criterion for involuntary admission; stronger restraint reduction programmes should be instigated; and involuntary care should be based on treating illness (something we can do) and not on predicting violence (something we cannot). Declaration of interest None.

Understanding and Treating Offenders with Serious Mental Illness in Public Sector Mental Health.

This article begins with the history of the rise and fall of the state hospitals and subsequent criminalization of persons with serious mental illness (SMI). Currently, there is a belief among many that incarceration has not been as successful as hoped in reducing crime and drug use, both for those with and those without SMI. Moreover, overcrowding in correctional facilities has become a serious problem necessitating a solution. Consequently, persons with SMI in the criminal justice system are now being released in large numbers to the community and hopefully treated by public sector mental health. The issues to consider when releasing incarcerated persons with SMI into the community are as follows: diversion and mental health courts; the expectation that the mental health system will assume responsibility; providing asylum and sanctuary; the capabilities, limitations, and realistic treatment goals of community outpatient psychiatric treatment for offenders with SMI; the need for structure; the use of involuntary commitments, including assisted outpatient treatment, conservatorship and guardianship; liaison between treatment and criminal justice personnel; appropriately structured, monitored, and supportive housing; management of violence; and 24-hour structured in-patient care. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

[The respect of the right to freedom of movement, an indicator of good quality patient management]. / Le respect du droit d'aller et venir, indicateur d'une prise en charge de qualité.

Freedom of movement is at the centre of contradictory challenges for the different people working in psychiatry, faced with a society demanding social regulation and safety, and the desire of institutions to provide high quality care. This freedom, and more globally the respect of patients' civil rights, are an indicator of the expected quality of care. Taking these rights into consideration does not mean neglecting safety, but attempts to put it into perspective. This article presents the clinical case of a patient.

[Failure of a study in forensic psychiatric hospitals : Clinical trial to investigate the additive effect of triptorelin on the efficacy of psychotherapy]. / Vom Scheitern einer Studie in Maßregelvollzugskrankenhäusern : Klinische Prüfung zum additiven Effekt von Triptorelin auf die Wirksamkeit von Psychotherapie.

BACKGROUND: A testosterone-lowering medication is relatively commonly used as a form of treatment for sexual offenders with severe paraphilic disorders in German forensic psychiatric hospitals; however, a double-blind, controlled and randomized study, which investigates the efficacy of this medication, is still lacking. AIM: This article describes the process from the planning to the rejection of a clinical trial over the period from 2009 to 2015. METHODS AND RESULTS: Despite the careful planning with an interdisciplinary team and giving special consideration to the complex legal situation, the Federal Institute for Drugs and Medical Devices (BfArM) rejected the proposed trial in a brief formal letter with reference to the German Drug Law (§ 40 para. 1 p. 3 nr. 4 AMG). The ethics committee of the Hamburg Medical Association considered that clinical research is basically not possible with patients detained in a forensic psychiatric hospital. DISCUSSION: In the opinion of the authors, the described facts illustrate how legal regulations that should protect vulnerable groups in medical research, in a specific case can lead to the fact that a therapy form relevant to the corresponding patient group cannot be scientifically investigated.

Staff and patient experiences of decision-making about continuous observation in psychiatric hospitals.

PURPOSE: Continuous observation of psychiatric inpatients aims to protect those who pose an acute risk of harm to self or others, but involves intrusive privacy restrictions. Initiating, conducting and ending continuous observation requires complex decision-making about keeping patients safe whilst protecting their privacy. There is little published guidance about how to balance privacy and safety concerns, and how staff and patients negotiate this in practice is unknown. To inform best practice, the present study, therefore, aimed to understand how staff and patients experience negotiating the balance between privacy and safety during decision-making about continuous observation. METHODS: Thematic analysis of qualitative interviews with thirty-one inpatient psychiatric staff and twenty-eight inpatients. RESULTS: Most patients struggled with the lack of privacy but valued feeling safe during continuous observation. Staff and patients linked good decision-making to using continuous observation for short periods and taking positive risks, understanding and collaborating with the patient, and working together as a supportive staff team. Poor decision-making was linked to insufficient consideration of observation's iatrogenic potential, insufficient collaboration with patients, and the stressful impact on staff of conducting observations and managing risk. CONCLUSIONS: Best practice in decision-making about continuous observation may be facilitated by making decisions in collaboration with patients, and by staff supporting each-other in positive risk-taking. To achieve truly patient-centred decision-making, decisions about observation should not be influenced by staff's own stress levels. To address the negative impact of staff stress on decision-making, it may be helpful to improve staff training, education and support structures.

Acceptability and use of coercive methods across differing service configurations with and without seclusion and/or psychiatric intensive care units.

AIMS: The aim of this study was to compare across different service configurations the acceptability of containment methods to acute ward staff and the speed of initiation of manual restraint. BACKGROUND: One of the primary remits of acute inpatient psychiatric care is the reduction in risks. Where risks are higher than normal, patients can be transferred to a psychiatric intensive care unit or placed in seclusion. The abolition or reduction in these two containment methods in some hospitals may trigger compensatory increases in other forms of containment which have potential risks. How staff members manage risk without access to these facilities has not been systematically studied. DESIGN: The study applied a cross-sectional design. METHODS: Data were collected from 207 staff at eight hospital sites in England between 2013 - 2014. Participants completed two measures; the first assessing the acceptability of different forms of containment for disturbed behaviour and the second assessing decision-making in relation to the need for manual restraint of an aggressive patient. RESULTS: In service configurations with access to seclusion, staff rated seclusion as more acceptable and reported greater use of it. Psychiatric intensive care unit acceptability and use were not associated with its provision. Where there was no access to seclusion, staff were slower to initiate restraint. There was no relationship between acceptability of manual restraint and its initiation. CONCLUSION: Tolerance of higher risk before initiating restraint was evident in wards without seclusion units. Ease of access to psychiatric intensive care units makes little difference to restraint thresholds or judgements of containment acceptability.

Effect of Complex Working Conditions on Nurses Who Exert Coercive Measures in Forensic Psychiatric Care.

Nurses who exert coercive measures on patients within psychiatric care are emotionally affected. However, research on their working conditions and environment is limited. The purpose of the current study was to describe nurses' experiences and thoughts concerning the exertion of coercive measures in forensic psychiatric care. The investigation was a qualitative interview study using unstructured interviews; data were analyzed with inductive content analysis. Results described participants' thoughts and experiences of coercive measures from four main categories: (a) acting against the patients' will, (b) reasoning about ethical justifications, (c) feelings of compassion, and (d) the need for debriefing. The current study illuminates the working conditions of nurses who exert coercive measures in clinical practice with patients who have a long-term relationship with severe symptomatology. The findings are important to further discuss how nurses and leaders can promote a healthier working environment. [Journal of Psychosocial Nursing and Mental Health Services, 54(9), 37-43.].

Between a Rock and a Hard Place: Ethical and Professional Dilemmas in a Psychiatric Hospital Under Missile Attacks.

BACKGROUND: Israeli hospitals must continuously develop various mechanisms to protect both patients and staff against the physical threat of missile attacks during war situations. OBJECTIVES: To examine the difficulties and dilemmas with which the staff of a psychiatric hospital had to deal during missile attacks. DESIGN: A quality improvement project consisting of three stages (1) establishment of a steering committee; (2) execution of a staff nurses' focus group; and (3) categorization of issues raised and suggestions for care improvement in future emergencies. RESULTS: The project stressed the challenges of dealing with restrained patients during missile alarms, waking up patients or dealing with those who refuse to enter the protected area, mismatching of the security needs in protected areas, and institutionalized emotional support for staff members. CONCLUSION: Suitable policies for clinical and management behavior and for information transfer between management and wards are essential during a continuous emergency.

[Coercive procedures in forensic psychiatry : Current treatment practice in forensic psychiatric hospitals from a medical ethics perspective]. / Zwangsmaßnahmen in der forensischen Psychiatrie : Aktuelle Behandlungspraxis im Maßregelvollzug aus medizinethischer Perspektive.

BACKGROUND: In 2011 the legal foundations of coercive treatment in German forensic psychiatric clinics were declared to be unconstitutional. In the present study we analyzed the frequency of coercive procedures in forensic psychiatric hospitals before and after 2011, the consequences for medical care as well as the ethical assessments by attending chief physicians. METHODS: By a questionnaire-based survey of views of attending chief physicians in forensic psychiatric clinics in 2013, data on the current state of patient care were collected and analyzed from an ethical perspective. These were compared with treatment data from a large forensic psychiatric clinic collected over the period 2007-2013. RESULTS: Even after 2011 coercive forms of treatment were applied in forensic psychiatric hospitals. In practice, there is a high degree of legal uncertainty regarding the limits of coercive treatment. Of all patients treated in forensic psychiatric clinics in 2012, on average 13 % had been in isolation at least once, approximately 3 % had been treated under fixation at least once and 2.2 % had been subjected to coercive medical treatment at least once. CONCLUSION: From an ethical perspective an open debate about the practice of coercive treatment is urgently required. Legal regulations, ethical guidelines and treatment standards have to be developed for the special situation of patient care in forensic psychiatric hospitals.

La discapacidad intelectual y el ámbito penitenciario / Intelectural disability and the prison setting

Introducción: La prevalencia de discapacidad intelectual (DI) en el entorno penitenciario ha estado escasamente valorada. En España, a pesar de diversas aproximaciones o estimaciones no existen datos fiables respecto a las personas que sufren de DI. Objetivos: 1) Determinar la prevalencia de DI en una muestra de la población penitenciaria española, ubicada en módulos residenciales 2) Obtener datos sobre la prevalencia de DI en unidades y hospitales psiquiátricos penitenciarios. Métodos: 1) Se realizó una administración del TONI II en una submuestra (n: 398) de un estudio de prevalencia en cárceles españolas para identificar los internos con DI. 2) Se revisaron la memorias del Área Psiquiátrica Penitenciaria del Parc Sanitari Sant Joan de Deu para determinar los pacientes con diagnostico principal de DI. 3) Se revisaron datos de documentos de la Dirección General de Instituciones Penitenciarias para obtener la prevalencia de discapacidad intelectual en los Hospitales Psiquiátricos Penitenciarios. Resultados: Los datos del TONI II fueron que un 3,77% de la población estudiada presenta un Coeficiente Intelectual (CI) por debajo de 70, y un 7,54% presentaba una inteligencia límite. Siendo mayores cuando valoramos la hospitalización psiquiátrica. Conclusiones: Los datos de DI en población penitenciaria presentan unas tasas elevadas, especialmente aquellos que precisan una atención psiquiátrica especializada. Lo que pone de relieve que son necesarios recursos (penitenciarios y comunitarios) para una mayor atención de las personas con DI durante el recorrido en el ámbito penal (AU)

Introduction: The prevalence of intellectual disability (ID) in the prison setting has scarcely been studied. Although some approximations or estimates regarding people with intellectual disabilities have been performed in Spain, there is little in the way of reliable data. Objectives: 1) To determine the prevalence of ID in a sample population in the residential modules of a Spanish prison, 2) Obtain data on the prevalence of ID in prison psychiatric units and hospitals. Methods: 1) A TONI II test was performed on a sub-sample (n = 398) of a prevalence study in Spanish prisons33 to identify inmates with intellectual disabilities. 2) We reviewed the reports of the psychiatric department of Parc Sanitari Sant Joan de Deu to establish the diagnosis at discharge of patients with a primary diagnosis of intellectual disability 3) Data from the Directorate General of Prisons on the prevalence of ID in Prison Psychiatric Hospitals was reviewed. Results: The data obtained from the TONI II test found 3.77% of the study population has an IQ below 70, and 7.54% has a borderline IQ rate. Assessment of penitentiary psychiatric hospitalization data showed these figures to be higher. Conclusions: The data from a Spanish prison population showed that ID levels were higher than those in the community, especially amongst prisoners requiring specialized psychiatric care. What is also evident is that adequate resources are required in prisons and in the community to provide better care for people with intellectual disabilities who are in the pathway of the criminal justice system (AU)

Formación MIR en el Hospital Psiquiátrico Penitenciario de Fontcalent / Residency training in Fontcalent Prison Psychiatric Hospital

No disponible

Respuesta a la carta al director. Formación MIR en el Hospital Psiquiátrico Penitenciario de Fontcalent / Reply. Residency training in Fontcalent Prison Psychiatric Hospital

No disponible

[The psychiatric hospital: a place where language is reconstructed through the group]. / L'hôpital psychiatrique: le lieu d'une remise en mots par le groupe.

Within the psychiatric hospital, the caregiver is faced with difficult choices regarding the <> to respond to the suffering of the patient, to accompany him and sometimes forcing him to accept care. The hospital is a place of pressures from within and from outside, where the caregiver must perform a balancing act, with multiple conflicting roles. He must respect patient rights and his resources, his safety and those of others, the understanding of his difficulties, the expectations of the family and the limits of reality. This care has a fundamental ethical dimension. The team discussion allows for a conflictual cooperation between caregivers, which makes possible caring for our patients in crisis.

El tratamiento moral y los inicios del manicomio en el Perú / Moral treatment and the beginning of the asylum in Peru

El tratamiento moral se desarrolló en Europa a fines del siglo XVIII, como una ideología que planteaba un trato humanitario hacia el enfermo mental, oponiéndose a los métodos brutalmente coercitivos habituales hasta ese entonces. En el Perú fue José Casimiro Ulloa el introductor de aquellas ideas, al denunciar la deplorable situación de las loquerías de los hospitales San Andrés y Santa Ana, lo que llevó a la fundación del Hospital Civil de la Misericordia en 1859. En el nuevo establecimiento se intentó llevar a cabo una reforma de la asistencia manicomial, pero con el paso de los años el local resultó estrecho para la creciente población. La inauguración del Asilo Colonia de la Magdalena en 1918 significó una nueva esperanza para quienes seguían abogando por un buen trato hacia los enfermos mentales. Lamentablemente la historia de hacinamiento y malos tratos se repetiría en el nuevo hospital en las siguientes décadas...

Moral treatment was developed in Europe in the late XVIII century as an ideology that proposed a humane treatment of the mentally ill, opposed to the coercive methods usual until then. In Peru José Casimiro Ulloa was the introducer of those ideas, to denounce the deplorable situation of ôloqueríasõ of San Andres and Santa Ana hospitals, which led to the foundation of Hospital Civil de la Misericordia in 1859. In the new hospital, a reform from asylum system was attempted, but over the years the place was cramped for the growing population. The inauguration of Asilo Colonia de la Magdalena in 1918 meant a new hope for those who were advocating a good treatment of the mentally ill. Unfortunately the history of overcrowding and mistreatment would be repeated in the new hospital in the following decades...

Video Surveillance in Mental Health Facilities: Is it Ethical?

Video surveillance is a tool for managing safety and security within public spaces. In mental health facilities, the major benefit of video surveillance is that it enables 24 hour monitoring of patients, which has the potential to reduce violent and aggressive behavior. The major disadvantage is that such observation is by nature intrusive. It diminishes privacy, a factor of huge importance for psychiatric inpatients. Thus, an ongoing debate has developed following the increasing use of cameras in this setting. This article presents the experience of a medium-large academic state hospital that uses video surveillance, and explores the various ethical and administrative aspects of video surveillance in mental health facilities.