Forensic state patients at Sterkfontein Psychiatric Hospital: a 3-year follow-up of state patients admitted in 2004 and 2005
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Date
2014-02-10
Authors
Marais, Belinda Sue
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Abstract
Forensic psychiatry in South Africa came to be in
the 1970’s following the introduction of the Mental Health Act of
1973 and the Criminal Procedures Act of 1977. Forensic
psychiatric units offer psychiatric observation for defendants
referred from the courts, as well as providing indefinite
detention, for the purpose of treatment and rehabilitation, of
those who have been declared unfit to stand trial and/or not
criminally responsible due to a mental illness or defect. State
patients are mentally ill offenders whose charges involved
serious violence. Ultimately these state patients are released
back into the community. There is a paucity of South African
literature regarding the outcome of state patients.