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Who we visited

The 284 people we visited represent about 21% of the 1380 individuals who were on a short term detention certificate during the period of our visit programme.

Nearly 60% of the people we visited agreed to be interviewed. Where an individual wasn't able to participate, or didn't wish to be interviewed, we still gathered information from their clinical notes and by talking to care staff.

80% of the people we met had been diagnosed with a mental illness. 13% had a diagnosis of dementia; a small number had a personality disorder, others had alcohol related brain damage, or a learning disability

Table 1: Individuals on STDCs visited, by diagnosis*

Diagnosis

No. of people visited

Mental illness (other than specified below)

235

Dementia

37

Acquired brain injury

3

Alcohol related brain damage

9

Learning disability

9

Autistic Spectrum Disorder

1

Personality disorder

19

Other diagnosis

6

Total of individual diagnoses

319

*Some individuals had more than one diagnosis and are therefore counted more than once in this table.

We are confident that our sample is representative of the total population of people on short term detention during the period in terms of age and pre-detention status.We found that women are slightly over-represented in the sample (56% of the total compared with 51% in the population) and men correspondingly slightly under-represented.

Table 2: Visits to people on short term detention by NHS Board, as % of total number on short term detention December 08 - April 09

NHS Board

Sample size

All STDCs 02.12.08 - 15.04.09

Sample as % of all STDs in the period

Ayrshire & Arran

12

75

16

Borders

1

21

5

Dumfries & Galloway

3

35

9

Fife

16

92

17

Forth Valley

13

69

19

Grampian

14

117

12

Greater Glasgow & Clyde

97

409

24

Highland

11

85

13

Lanarkshire

32

95

34

Lothian

50

249

20

Tayside

35

126

28

Western Isles

0

7

0

SCOTLAND

284

1380

21

From Table 2, it is clear that Glasgow, Lanarkshire and Tayside are slightly over-represented in the sample in relation to the total number of short term detentions in their areas.Borders, Dumfries & Galloway, Grampian, Highland and Western Isles are under-represented.