U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government, Department of Justice.

NCJRS Virtual Library

The Virtual Library houses over 235,000 criminal justice resources, including all known OJP works.
Click here to search the NCJRS Virtual Library

Usefulness of the CANFOR-S for Measuring Needs Among Mentally Disordered Offenders Resident in Medium or Low Secure Hospital Services in the UK: A Pilot Evaluation

NCJ Number
222615
Journal
Criminal Behaviour and Mental Health Volume: 18 Issue: 1 Dated: 2008 Pages: 39-48
Author(s)
Clive G. Long; Paula Webster; Jo Waine; Jamilah Motala; Clive R. Hollin
Date Published
2008
Length
10 pages
Annotation
This pilot study conducted in the United Kingdom tested the feasibility of using the short form of the forensic version of the Camberwell Assessment of Needs (CANFOR-S) (Thomas et al., 2003) with patients in medium-security and low-security hospital units.
Abstract
The preliminary findings show that the CANFOR-S met all the criteria of a standardized outcome measure that has feasibility (Slade et al., 1999). The feedback from participating patients and assessment staff indicates that the CANFOR-S was simple to use, relevant to daily clinical practice, and of particular value in providing a brief but comprehensive measure of a patient's need in key areas, particularly offending behavior and substance abuse among those with mental disorders. Patients in medium-security hospital units (all women for this study) had more needs identified than the patients in lower security, suggesting that the placement decisions at the time of the assessment were appropriate. Future research should use a larger, more varied sample that includes men in medium-security conditions. The CANFOR covers 25 areas of need and includes questions on offending behavior and on patient agreement with prescribed treatment. A total of 36 patients (12 women from medium security, 6 from low security, and 18 men from low security) were assessed with the CANFOR-S. All of those assessed were patients at St. Andrews Hospital, Northampton, which treats adult difficult-to-manage psychiatric patients under conditions of medium-security and low-security. 3 tables and 31 references