Medium Secure Psychiatric Provision in the Private Sector

This text addresses the contribution made by the private sector to the provision of medium secure psychiatric care in England and Wales. It examines the expanding market in private psychiatric provision, comparing care and programmes available in the private and National Health Service sectors. The book demonstrates that the development of independent medium-secure psychiatric provision is a private sector, market-oriented response to a national shortage of medium secure beds, in particular relating to patients identified as posing exceptional management problems, or those requiring this type of care on a long-term basis. It also demonstrates that the independent sector is becoming firmly entrenched in the speciality of forensic psychiatry and the provision of medium-secure units and that they demonstrate increased flexibility in the type of patient they are prepared to admit.