Polish Experiences of Safety Measures Involving Forensic Psychiatric Inpatients Implemented During the Sars-CoV-2 Pandemic

The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic has made it necessary for us to adapt our healthcare systems to a very different sort of reality. This clearly also applies to psychiatric services. The restrictions and safeguards associated with the pandemic particularly concern adherence to social distancing and medical treatment safety procedures. The implementation of these procedures is generally complicated by conditions of forensic psychiatry where, in line with demands made by courts, the treatment and isolation of mentally unwell offenders must be carefully managed. In most countries, forensic psychiatric treatment is an inpatient service where patients are kept in restricted and cramped spaces, making social distancing difficult to implement as patients participate in compulsory group therapeutic activities. As a result, it is necessary to introduce unique recommendations relating to patient safety and treatment adapted to the realities of forensic psychiatry. All this requires the implementation of additional restrictions, over and above those arising from the essential aspects of forensic psychiatry. In this paper, we present and discuss the Polish guidelines for forensic psychiatric care during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, developed as a result of discussions on essential measures introduced to reduce the spread of the virus and the unique needs of the forensic patient population

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19 · Disease · Distancing · Forensic psychiatry · Isolation (microbiology · Medical emergency · Mental health · Pandemic · Population · Psychiatry · Social distance · Social isolation · COVID-19 and Mental Health · Healthcare Decision-Making and Restraints · Medicine · Psychology · Psychopathy, Forensic Psychiatry, Sexual Offending

• The impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the psychosocial rehabilitation of forensic psychiatric patients in Austria

  Open Access•Marlene Koch, Alexander Dvorak et al.•International Journal of Law and…•2023

  Incluir item

• Patterns of admission in forensic units during the Covid-19 pandemic

  Open Access•Isabella D’Orta, François R Herrmann et al.•Frontiers in Psychiatry•2024

  Incluir item

• Collision of the Covid-19 and Addiction Epidemics

  Nora D Volkow•Annals of Internal Medicine•2020

  Incluir item

• The psychological impact of quarantine and how to reduce it

  Open Access•Samantha K Brooks, Rebecca K Webster et al.•The Lancet•2020

  Incluir item

• Characteristics and Pathways of Long-Stay Patients in High and Medium Secure Settings in England; A Secondary Publication From a Large Mixed-Methods Study

  Open Access•Birgit Vollm, Birgit A Völlm et al.•Frontiers in Psychiatry•2018

  Incluir item

• Factors Influencing Length of Stay of Forensic Patients

  Open Access•Paweł Gosek, Justyna Kotowska et al.•Frontiers in Psychiatry•2020

  Incluir item