Forensic personality disorder in an MSU: lessons learnt after two years

Abstract

For the last two years, the Forensic Mental Health Service at South London & Maudsley NHS has been one of the pilot sites funded by the DSPD programme. In this paper we are reporting on one segment of the Personality Disorder Service. As of December 2006, the service will have been operating for two years. This is one of several Home Office‐funded forensic personality disorder treatment sites in the UK. It consists of a 15‐bed medium secure inpatient service, a community team and two hostels.We begin by describing briefly our treatment model and the theoretical underpinnings of our service. However, the bulk of this paper will report on the lessons we have learned.