Psychiatric services : a journal of the American Psychiatric Association
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Comparative Study
Clinical characteristics of community forensic mental health services.
Community forensic mental health teams are a new service within the widening range of specialized community mental health services. The characteristics of these novel services are poorly defined. Two commonly described service models in the United Kingdom are the integrated model (forensic specialists working within community mental health teams) and the parallel model (forensic specialists working on a separate specialist team). The study reported here aimed to establish clear definitions of these service models. ⋯ Integrated and parallel models of community forensic mental health teams differ on many service characteristics. Defining these characteristics will help in researching the pros and cons of each model in the treatment and risk management of mentally ill offenders in the community.