title: Treatment and Control: A Qualitative Study of Older Mentally Ill Offenders' Perceptions on Their Detention and Care Trajectory.
abstract: The life of older mentally ill offenders (OMIOs) is often characterized by successive periods of detention in correctional facilities, admissions to psychiatric services, and unsuccessful attempts to live independently. Through in-depth interviews, eight personal stories from OMIOs under supervision of the commission of social defence in Ghent (Belgium) were analyzed in the phenomenological research tradition. The results of the study reveal that OMIOs had more positive and less negative experiences in prison settings when compared with other institutional care settings. Independent living, unsurprisingly, is favored the most. This may be due to the fact that the latter option fosters personal competence, feelings of being useful, personal choices, and contact with the "outside" world. Even in later lifetime, a combined approach of risk assessment with improvement of well-being remains valuable to stimulate offender rehabilitation. Therefore, more research into concepts that could be used to support OMIOs needs further consideration.
authors: Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium University College Ghent, Belgium stefaan.desmet@hogent.be.
authors: Stefaan
authors: S
authors: De Smet
authors: University College Ghent, Belgium.
authors: Nele
authors: N
authors: Van Hecke
authors: Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium.
authors: Dominique
authors: D
authors: Verté
authors: Ghent University, Belgium.
authors: Eric
authors: E
authors: Broekaert
authors: University of Limerick, Ireland.
authors: Denis
authors: D
authors: Ryan
authors: Ghent University, Belgium.
authors: Stijn
authors: S
authors: Vandevelde
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D001530:Belgium; D003134:Commitment of Persons with Psychiatric Disorders; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D008297:Male; D028642:Persons with Psychiatric Disorders / Q000523:psychology*; D008875:Middle Aged; D011329:Prisoners
keywords: forensic mental health; forensic psychiatry; geriatric offenders; older mentally ill offenders