Thomas Nilsson and his colleague Peter Andiné look out over Rården’s courtyard. Photo: Anna Rehnberg.GRANTS. Forensic psychiatry patients form a broad and complex group, making it difficult to leverage knowledge between countries in the field. A project led by the University of Gothenburg, which has now received funding from the Swedish Research Council, will provide systemic knowledge that ultimately will provide better forensic psychiatric care.
The project, which has now received SEK 3.6 million from the Swedish Research Council, is entitled “Needed support and help for forensic psychiatric patients: concepts, instruments, assessment, and consequences for care.”
Neglected area
The main applicant is Psychologist Thomas Nilsson, an associate professor at the Institute of Neuroscience and Physiology and an investigator at Rågården Sahlgrenska University Hospital and the National Board of Forensic Medicine. He feels that the project is a big boost for forensic psychiatric research at the University of Gothenburg and that the research ultimately will mean a lot to patients.
“The state of knowledge about patients within forensic psychiatry and their treatment has been severely neglected, and we lack established knowledge about their need for help and what interventions actually work for them.”
Broad spectrum
The patient group cared for within forensic psychiatry is defined based on national legislation and not on specific diagnoses or psychiatric criteria. This means there is patients a broad spectrum of patients with difficult and complex psychiatric problems. Since Swedish jurisdiction defines patients, this also make it difficult to compare and leverage knowledge between countries.
“In addition to meeting patient needs for care, forensic psychiatric care also is tasked with protecting society. This mission has double agendas that in several respects are difficult to reconcile,” says Nilsson.
“In our project we evaluate instruments and methods for determining the care and support these patients need, the general level of their need for help, and their functional status, based on both self-evaluation and staff estimates and on systematic testing and investigation.”
The step from inpatient to outpatient care
Patients whose inpatient forensic psychiatric care has been completed and who are transferred to outpatient care will also be followed up within the project after one year to find out more about how they have coped with illness, housing, and criminality.
The project collects both quantitative and qualitative data. This makes it possible to statistically analyze how these patients estimate their own need for care, the ability of the care to identify and meet their needs, and if variables related to care needs and functional status can be used to predict care outcomes.
The researchers will also be able to conduct qualitative analyses that help clarify rehabilitation goals in forensic psychiatric care and how these goals can appropriately be shared with the various collaborating stakeholders in this care.
BY: ELIN LINDSTRÖM
