Editorial

I am honoured to pace into the shoes of Graham Towl and David Crighton as the fresh Editor of the Journal at this time of exciting change in forensic mental health services. I faith I can keep the high standards which they have put

The new personality disorder pilots stocked by the Government's personality disorder programme are make open and taking in clients. These services have pioneered fresh ways of recruiting staff and novel models of providing services. There is a allotment of excitement about the fresh treatments. In some of the units, the of recent origin types of therapist and other staff are not your traditional NH or prison service worker. The patients and prisoners are expecting a fate Everyone is hoping that, with the massive injection of resources and the fresh focus on personality disorder that the DSPD programme has brought this will have a positive impact not single on this group of clients, on the contrary also on the rest of forensic mental health.

The Government's Delivering Race Equality Programme has the potential to improve significantly the experience of black and ethnic minorities (BMEs) in forensic mental health, where they are overrepresent in numbers and those in receipt of coercive interventions. There are true few interventions in existence which can address the point in disputes of BMEs. One hopes that resources will be made available to unfold the necessary new interventions to bring ethnic disparities and improve the experience of BME A lock opener new competency for all staff in the NH is cultural Considerable work needs to be done to explore and define what it means and by what means it can change practice.

We await the Government's plans upon new mental health legislation. Following the major expansion of forensic beds in this geographical division and in Europe, commissioners of health services are likely to take a greater interest in what goe upon inside various forensic institutions. The increasing extent of in-patient stay for those in lower and medium forensic psychiatric establishments is of particular regard at a time when treatments and patient issues for mental disorders are suppos to be getting better. We trust that scrutiny of the reasons for the development in the forensic patient population by means of commissioners will be more sophisticated and challenging than previous attempts to understand the phenomenon. There is a ne to change the working practices of those who work in certain units and to bring more [i]or[/i] less of the good practice from general psychiatry locally and abroad into forensic practice. An emphasise upon social inclusion for patients in contact with forensic services should challenge the bent of services to have depressed expectations of those who have passed [i]or[/i] part of to the other them.

We hope that the Journal will remain at the heart of the research and service unravelling debates in forensic practice. There are a number of fresh proposals on how we can remain at the forefront. They include having more regular invited articles from lock opener decision-makers, service users, practitioners and stakeholders. We also confidence to have new articles upon theoretical issues, for example proposals for research to address lock opener knowledge gaps.

DAVID NDEGWA

(EDITOR)

Copyright Pavilion Publishing (Brighton) Ltd Feb 2006

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