Regional Secure Units: The Emerging Picture

Abstract

Up to about the 1950’s, National Health Service (NHS) psychiatric hospitals in England and Wales had secure locked wards with staff experienced in dealing with difficult, moderately dangerous or disruptive patients. The conditions in these wards were often unsatisfactory and the pattern of care became progressively less acceptable with the spread of open-door policies, effective new psychotropic drugs and the enlightened forms of rehabilitation and community care which came to be reflected in the 1959 Mental Health Act.

The research upon which this paper is based is supported by the Department of Health and Social Security. Any opinions expressed are the authors’ own.

This paper refers only to secure units for the treatment of adult mentally ill patients. Similar units have been established to care for mentally handicapped and adolescent patients.