FROM SPECIAL HOSPITAL TO REGIONAL SECURE UNIT - A QUALITATIVE STUDY OF THE PROBLEMS EXPERIENCED BY PATIENTS

For those patients in the United Kingdom who are compulsorily detained in a special hospital the most common route of release is via other p sychiatric hospitals, especially regional secure units. That a large p ercentage of these patients are subsequently readmitted (43% in this s tudy) indicates that they experience problems within the regional secu re unit. A grounded theory approach was used to investigate this exper ience from the patients' perspective by interviewing a sample of 14 pa tients who had been readmitted to one special hospital. Data analysis can prove difficult in grounded theory and the approach that was used - a variant of the constant comparative method - is described. A numbe r of inductively developed categories were generated from the intervie w data and one category is reported here. From these categories a theo ry of 'failure' is postulated that, it is contended, both describes an d explains the process of readmission. Finally, the implications for p ractice in terms of the preparation of patients for transfer are addre ssed.