Citation

Cohen A, Eastman N. J. Forensic Psychiatry 1996; 7(3): 653-661.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1996, Informa - Taylor and Francis Group)

DOI

10.1080/09585189608415049

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

A telephone survey of South Thames (West) Region (STWR) providers established the number of cases on the supervision registers broken down by risk categories. There were 374 cases held on 13 registers. Risk categories were used mutually exclusively by only 2 providers. The most frequently used were 'violence' alone (34%), 'self-neglect' alone (22%) and 'suicide' alone (20%). The contribution of each of the three criteria varied considerably across providers. The percentage of each district population on the registers ranged from 0.005% to 0.024%. There was no significant correlation between the percentage of cases on the registers and Jarman Underprivileged Area scores (rho = 0.12, p = 0.75) or between rates of suicide in the district health authorities and the number of cases in the 'risk of suicide' category (r = -0.07, p = 0.86). The estimated cost of the registers, based on an estimate by the Royal College of Psychiatrists, was £187,000. The registers are operating highly inconsistently across providers and district health authorities in STWR. This has ethical, clinical and economic implications. Further research is required to examine the reliability, validity, clinical utility and cost-effectiveness of the registers.

Language: en

Keywords

human; violence; suicide; Suicide; United Kingdom; ethics; article; major clinical study; risk; priority journal; telephone; economic aspect; social status; cost effectiveness analysis; cost; reliability; neglect; health care system; register; Prediction of violence; Supervision registers