Background factors related to and/or influencing occupation in mentally disordered offenders

Knowledge of background and occupational related factors of mentally disordered offenders are missing. It is essential to understand these issues when planning discharge from forensic psychiatric hospital care to enable community dwelling.

One aim was to investigate mentally disordered offenders' background factors, confidence in and how they value occupations. Another aim was to investigate MDOs background factors' in relation to and the influences on Occupational Performance and Social Participation.

Data was collected with an explorative, correlative design after informed consent, from 74 mentally disordered offenders (mean age 34,2) cared for in forensic psychiatric hospitals. Assessments were Allen Cognitive Level Screen, Capability to Perform Daily Occupations, Interview Schedule of Social Interaction, Manchester Short Assessment of Quality of Life, Self-efficacy Scale and Importance scale. Eight background factors were assembled from the individual forensic psychiatric investigation.

Most of the investigated background factors relate to and half of them influence occupational performance, particular the cognitive aspect of occupational performance. The influences on occupation originate from adulthood, such as suffering from schizophrenia, psycho/social problems, and having performed violent crimes. These findings indicate that staff in forensic hospital care should initiate rehabilitation with knowledge about MDOs' complex daily occupations. For avoiding information bias, information gathering preceding treatment planning should be performed in collaboration between caring staff and mentally disordered offenders.