Although assessment of mental disorder particularly in relation to a person’s offending is one of the primary services for the Midland Regional Forensic Psychiatric Service, treatment and rehabilitation are also equally significant components, i.e. a person may have offended and this is found to have been as a result of their mental illness, or mental illness coupled with problem behaviours that may result in serious offending.
It is then the goal of our services to successfully treat the person’s illness and eventually safely rehabilitate the individual back into their home community. This is often the time when the local adult mental health services and/or general practitioners may become involved in the ongoing care of people (often whom they know well) that are transitioning out of forensic services back into the community with their primary health services to continue the support.
Stigma is a real issue for people with mental health problems. It is therefore important that people who have entered mental health services, and especially forensic psychiatric services, for whatever reason, are given as much opportunity in their future to live as normal a life as possible. The challenges for all health care providers is to practice safely and responsibly and aim to achieve the best possible health outcomes for individuals and families/whanau who are part of our respective services.