Lessons from the front line: working with offenders with learning disability and personality disorder in a high secure therapeutic community

The aim of this paper is to provide an overview of the experiences of nursing staff providing a residential treatment programme for high risk offenders with an intellectual disability and personality disorder.

The paper's approach is thematic analysis of focus groups, repeated measures EssenCES.

Nursing staff report increased insight into patients' risk factors, improved relationships with patients and enhanced team working.

This descriptive paper will be of interest to clinicians working with offenders with intellectual disability and personality disorder. Improvements in team functioning may be of interest to managers.

There are few published papers concerning treatment approaches with offenders with intellectual disability and personality disorder. This paper fills some of the gaps.