The Apparent home of Hannibal the Cannibable And JImmy Saviile Broadmoor Hospital is a high-security psychiatric hospital at Crowthorne in the Borough of Bracknell Forest in Berkshire, England. It is the best known of the three high-security psychiatric hospitals in England, the other two being Ashworth and Rampton. Scotland has a similar institution at Carstairs, officially known as the State Hospital but often called Carstairs Hospital, which serves Scotland and Northern Ireland. The Broadmoor complex houses about 210 patients, all of whom are men since the female service closed with most of the women moving to a new service in Southall in September 2007, a few moving to the national high secure service for women at Rampton and a few elsewhere. At any one time there are also approximately 36 patients on trial leave at other units. Most of the patients there suffer from severe mental illness; many also have personality disorders. Most have either been convicted of serious crimes, or been found unfit to plead in a trial for such crimes. The average stay for the total population is about six years, but this figure is skewed by some patients who have stayed for over 30 years; most patients stay for considerably less than six years. The catchment area for the hospital underwent some rationalisation of the London area in the early 21st century, and now serves all of the NHS Regions: London, Eastern, South East and South West. One of the therapies available is the arts, and patients are encouraged to participate in the Koestler Awards Scheme. The hospital was previously known as the Broadmoor Criminal Lunatic Asylum; the change of name reflects a change in attitude towards mental illness, criminals and the word asylum. The hospital was built to a design by Sir Joshua Jebb, an Officer of the Corps of Royal Engineers, and covers 53 acres (210,000 square metres) within its secure perimeter. The first patient was a female admitted for infanticide, on 27 May 1863. Notes described her as being feeble minded, it has been suggested by modern doctors upon analysis of notes, that she was most likely also suffering from congenital syphilis. The first male patients arrived on 27 February 1864. The original building plan of five blocks for men and one for women was completed in 1868. A further male block was built in 1902. Due to overcrowding at Broadmoor, a branch asylum was constructed at Rampton Secure Hospital and opened in 1912. Rampton was closed as a branch asylum at the end of 1919 and reopened as an institution for mental defectives rather than lunatics. During World War I Broadmoors block 1 was also used as a prisoner-of-war camp, called Crowthorne War Hospital, for mentally ill German soldiers.[2] After the escape and the murder of a local child in 1952 by John Straffen the hospital set up an alarm system, which is activated to alert people in the vicinity, including those in the surrounding towns of Sandhurst, Wokingham, Bracknell and Bagshot, when any potentially dangerous patient escapes. It is based on World War II air-raid sirens, and a two-tone alarm sounds across the whole area in the event of an escape. It is tested every Monday morning at 10 am for two minutes, after which a single tone all-clear is sounded for a further two minutes. All schools in the area must keep procedures designed to ensure that in the event of a Broadmoor escape no child is ever out of the direct supervision of a member of staff. Sirens are located at Sandhurst School, Wellington College, Bracknell Forest council depot and other sites.[3][4] As well as providing patient care Broadmoor is a centre for training and research. Following the Peter Fallon QC inquiry into Ashworth Special Hospital, which reported in 1999 and found, amongst other things, serious concerns about security and abuses that came about from poor management, it was decided to review the security at all three special hospitals. Until this time each special hospital was responsible for maintaining its own security policies. This review was made the personal responsibility of Sir Alan Langlands who at the time was Chief Executive of the National Health Service (England). The report that came out of the review initiated a new partnership to be formed whereby the Department of Health sets out a policy of safety and security directions that all three special hospitals must adhere to. These directions are then updated or modified as needed. This has resulted in upgraded physical security at Broadmoor from approximately category C to category B prison standards. Higher levels of security than this are then placed around certain buildings. New standards have also been formulated to increase procedural security and safety for the staff and other patients; these include procedures and equipment for reducing the amount of contraband smuggled into the hospital. Before the Langlands report, it had been an anathema in modern psychiatry to think of enclosing the mentally ill behind razor wire. As this type of security measure had been seen as unnecessary, it was thought that it would only serve to reinforce the stigma against psychiatric patients if it were to be employed. Misconceptions regarding its status as a prison Psychology The Greek letter psi, a symbol for psychology Outline History Subfields Basic types Abnormal Biological Cognitive Comparative Cultural Differential Developmental Evolutionary Experimental Mathematical Neuropsychology Personality Positive Quantitative Social Applied psychology Applied behavior analysis Clinical Community Consumer Counseling Educational Environmental Ergonomics Forensic Health Industrial and organizational Legal Medical Military Music Occupational health Political Religion School Sport Traffic Lists Disciplines Organizations Psychologists Psychotherapies Publications Research methods Theories Timeline Topics Portal icon Psychology portal v t e Because of the outside appearance of the buildings, especially its high walls and other visible security features, and the inaccurate news reporting it has received in the past, it is occasionally presumed by some members of the general public that Broadmoor Hospital is a prison. Many of its patients are indeed referred to it by the criminal justice system, and its original design brief incorporated an essence of addressing criminality in addition to mental illness; however, the layout inside and the daily routine are designed to assist the therapy practiced there rather than to meet the criteria necessary for it to be run along the lines of a prison in its daily functions.[9] Nearly all staff are members of the Prison Officers Association,[10] as opposed to the health service unions like UNISON. Jimmy Noak, Broadmoors director of nursing, in response to claims that criminals were being given unfairly pleasant treatment in the facility, commented, Its not fair, but what is the alternative? If these people committed crimes because they were suffering from an acute mental illness then they should be in hospital.
Posted on: Mon, 08 Sep 2014 12:23:15 +0000
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