These are exciting times for those interested in adolescent forensic psychiatry: a network of six NHS adolescent forensic in-patient units in England has been successfully developed; and, most Young Offenders Institutions/Young Person's Prisons or local authority secure children's homes (LASCH) now receive specialist in-reach from CAMHS teams. 

 

In the UK, our subspeciality has largely developed its base in the NHS adolescent secure units. However, in addition to these NHS services, a number of private sector medium and low secure adolescent units have also been established. A recent CAMHS mapping exercise has highlighted the need for more community forensic adolescent teams as there is currently a relative paucity of this level of service.

 

We are passionate about our field of work and would like to encourage others to work, study and research in this area. By writing this module, we hope to better inform our colleagues about what adolescent forensic psychiatry is and to provide useful information on the services available in the UK and Republic of Ireland.