Staff and patient perspectives on the Fallon Inquiry into the Personality Disorder Service at Ashworth High Secure Hospital

Pete Melia is an experienced mental health nurse and health service manager with a long history of practice in forensic [high and medium security] services. He was drafted in to the Personality Disorder Unit as the Senior Clinical Nurse prior to February 1997 when the Ashworth Inquiry was announced. During the course of the inquiry he held various posts at Ashworth Hospital including those of Clinical Manager and Acting Clinical Director for the Personality Disorder Unit. Throughout the period of the inquiry, and in its aftermath, Pete worked closely with the staff and patients of the Unit to develop a more robust operational framework to enable proper treatment to take place without compromising the well-being or professional integrity of the staff His achievements were acknowledged in both volumes of the inquiry's findings (Fallon et a/. 1999a, 1999b).