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Centre for Policy on Ageing | |
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| Is there a case for a specialist forensic psychiatry service for the elderly? | | Author(s) | R Tomar, I H Treasaden, A K Shah |
| Journal title | International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, vol 20, no 1, January 2005 |
| Pages | pp 51-56 |
| Source | http://www.interscience.wiley.com |
| Keywords | Offenders ; Referrals ; Psychiatric treatment ; London. |
| Annotation | The number of older offenders in England and Wales is increasing, but there is little information on older offenders that are referred to the existing forensic science units. Data on patients aged 65+ referred to a large medium secure forensic science unit in London were collected retrospectively over 13 years. 5,477 referrals were made during the study period. Those aged 65+ accounted for 78 (1.45%) of all referrals: these 78 referrals were for 55 patients, 45 of whom had offended. Case notes of 42 patients from this group were screened. Sexual and violent offences accounted respectively for 20 (47%) and 15 (36%) offences. 31% had no psychiatric disorder, but organic disorders accounted for 21% of cases. Only 8 (19%) required admission to the medium secure unit. 14 had first offended after age 65, while others were known either to the forensic services or criminal justice system before age 65. Although they had committed serious offences and had a high prevalence of psychiatric morbidity, offenders aged 65+ account for a very small number of referrals. These older offenders may benefit from a specialist old age psychiatric forensic service at sub-regional level. (RH). |
| Accession Number | CPA-050127212 A |
| Classmark | TGC: L5R: LP: 82L |
Data © Centre for Policy on Ageing |
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| ...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing. |
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