summary
background Forensic psychiatry is concerned particularly with accurate risk-assessment of offenders’ future behaviour.
aim To describe a staging and profiling system that is applicable to mentally-ill patients who have committed an offence.
method The various steps in forensic psychiatric diagnosis are analysed and discussed.
results Three diagnostic steps within a treatment trajectory are described: stage 1. psychiatric diagnosis; stage 2. the course of the trajectory; stage 3. supervision (i.e. protection from danger). Each step is divided into profiles.
conclusion By means of staging and profiling, the treatment plan is integrated into a dynamic model in which each stage contains a set of activities that gradually lead to unique profiles and interventions which incorporate evidence for subsequent diagnostics.