ABSTRACT
Whilst undertaking data collection for the study described in chapter 6, it became evident from the medical files that a significant proportion of patients admitted to Stockton Hall were described within their files as having been ‘unmanageable’ in their parent district. This appeared to provide the impetus, for a number of reasons, for their subsequent referral to Stockton Hall. As the nature of this study was to focus on any disparities in access between public and private sector psychiatric provision, and as nothing similar had been evident in patient files at either the Hutton Unit or the Norvic Clinic, I decided to investigate this further. Data was subsequently collected regarding these patients to provide a useful insight into their characteristics, both medical and criminal and to address the question of how these patients came to find themselves not in secure psychiatric care within their own region, but in a private sector facility, often many miles away from their homes and families.
