Recent research relevant to discharge planning from medium secure psychiatric units: re-examining the literature

Clinicians working in NHS and private medium secure units aiming to produce effective community care plans for their patients are faced with large amo unts of information from studies of community care. Conflicting results fro m large-scale studies have been further complicated by semantic confusions. Lack of consideration of the impact of international differences in system s of delivery of health and social care may also have affected attempts to replicate research results cross-nationally. Re-examining the literature fo r evidence of effectiveness with these points in mind produces some useful evidence. Using a needs-based approach to consider the characteristics of t he current patient population in medium secure units presents possibilities of formulating effective community care plans based on current research ev idence in the absence of studies of this particular group.