Forensic Mental Health

What we do

The aim of the Criminal Justice and Forensic Mental Health (C-JAF) Service is to provide specialist mental health service for those people who come into contact with criminal justice services and require mental health intervention.

There are two distinct functions of the C-JAF service:

Criminal Justice Liaison service which provides assessment, liaison and diversion services to local Criminal Justice Agencies which include Police, Courts and the National Probation Service.
Secondly the Forensic Mental Health Liaison service which provides specialist assessment and consultation services, as well as a limited capacity for Care Coordination for services users in community and inpatient settings.

Who is it for?

Primarily the service is aimed at the following:

Those people who suffer from mental ill-health who are in contact with Criminal Justice Services and require liaison, diversion or assessment services.
People who have been sentenced to a hospital order by the criminal justice system.
People transferred from prison to mental health inpatient hospital care.
People with mental ill-health who are leaving prison and their offending is at a level that requires specialist forensic follow up.
People in the community whose risk is such that they require specialist assessment, care co-ordination and intervention from the Forensic Mental Health Service.

It is not aimed at those individuals that are suffering from a primary diagnosis of substance misuse in the absence of any clear mental illness.

Can anyone use this service?

The service will accept referrals for people with:

A suspected or established mental disorder which relates to serious offending behaviour,
Are demonstrating actual or potential serious risk to others, which is related to their mental disorder,
Whose assessment/ treatment may require and can be met by the specialist skills/facilities of the community forensic service.

Referrals will typically come from the following:

The Criminal Justice Liaison service will support referrals from Criminal Justice and Health colleagues within police stations, courts and probation services, where there is a suspicion of mental disorder and or self-harm.

The Forensic Mental Health Liaison service will support referrals from:

Within existing community mental health services who are presenting serious risks to others, which is linked to a diagnosed mental disorder.
Inpatients who are subject to hospital orders in secure care.
Conditionally discharged patients (previously detained under Section 37 with section 41 restrictions applied).
Patients on license (have completed part of their sentence in prison but are subject to ongoing license conditions whilst the remainder of their sentence is served in the community).
Certain patients on Community Orders (COs) and suspended sentences with conditions of psychiatric