Hean Sarah, Warr Jerry, Staddon Sue
School of Health and Social Care, University of Bournemouth, Dorset, UK.
Med Sci Law. 2009 Jul;49(3):170-8. doi: 10.1258/rsmmsl.49.3.170.
Provision of mental health reports for defendants in contact with the criminal justice system is problematic. This paper explores factors that facilitate the flow of information on a defendant between the courts and the mental health services. It identifies key challenges to this information transfer from a court worker's perspective. It also explores potential mismatches in the expectations held by the criminal justice system and the mental health services of the timeframes in which reports should be delivered and examines the perceived usefulness of reports. In Part 1, questionnaires were distributed to a population of 2107 court workers. In Part 2, monitoring forms were completed by court and health professionals on each report request made over a seven month period. Three key challenges to information transfer were identified: delays in report production, perceived inadequacies in the report content and report funding. Perceived timelines within which respondents believed reports should be delivered varied and there is a mismatch between the expectations of the two services. Perceptions on the usefulness of court reports also varied. Poor inter-agency communications are caused by lack of a clear, shared protocol outlining agreed timelines, report content and lines of responsibility relating to resource provision. Clear service level agreements are required between services to achieve clarity.
为与刑事司法系统有接触的被告提供心理健康报告存在问题。本文探讨了促进法院与心理健康服务机构之间关于被告信息流动的因素。它从法院工作人员的角度确定了这种信息传递的关键挑战。它还探讨了刑事司法系统和心理健康服务机构在报告交付时间框架方面的期望可能存在的不匹配，并审视了报告的感知有用性。在第一部分，向2107名法院工作人员发放了问卷。在第二部分，法院和卫生专业人员就七个月期间提出的每份报告请求填写了监测表。确定了信息传递的三个关键挑战：报告制作延迟、报告内容被认为存在不足以及报告资金问题。受访者认为报告应交付的时间线各不相同，而且这两种服务的期望存在不匹配。对法院报告有用性的看法也各不相同。机构间沟通不畅是由于缺乏明确、共享的协议，该协议应概述商定的时间线、报告内容以及与资源提供相关的责任分工。各服务机构之间需要明确的服务水平协议以实现清晰明确。
