ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the author explores the experience of working as consultant psychiatrist for a psychiatric intensive care unit that had been reorganised from a mixed to an all-female unit. She focuses on the nature of physical aggression in order to emphasise the clinical challenge for staff working with women suffering from acute and florid psychotic states. The author examines work in an National Health Service (NHS) Trust that provides secondary and tertiary mental health care. The organisation of services within an NHS Trust is that of a public sector corporation headed by a board consisting of executive and non-executive directors. Clinical examples are included to illustrate some issues that are of importance for women admitted to hospital. The aggressive behaviour of women on the ward was recognised to be different from that which was seen as more typical of men.
