An examination of therapeutic principles and practice in two forensic units

The study reported here was conducted following claims made by a forensic psychiatric unit (called Ambrose Unit) that, in effect, it functioned as a therapeutic community. The study aimed to compare this claim with findings from the Attitude to Treatment Questionnaire (ATQ) that was administered to the staff of the unit. For the purposes of the exercise, the unit was matched with another similar unit that had not claimed to function therapeutically. It was hypothesized that, in keeping with their therapeutic claims, scores for staff from the Ambrose Unit would be more liberal than those for staff from the other unit (called Delphi unit). A series of ANOVA calculations supported this hypothesis and other hypotheses regarding political and social attitudes of staff working in these units. However, the discussion considers in more detail, scores from the ATQ, and questions these results. The nature of therapeutic community research in general is also considered and the validity of results generated from such research is discussed. Finally, the limitations imposed by the difficulty with which terms in this area are defined is acknowledged.