The Good Lives Model tool kit for mentally disordered offenders

The Good Lives Model (GLM) is a new approach to offender rehabilitation that provides an integrative framework for assisting individuals to achieve their goals while reducing their risk for reoffending. Recently it has been proposed that an augmented form of the GLM could provide a comprehensive conceptual, ethical and practice framework for rehabilitation within the specialty of forensic mental health. However, there is a paucity of published literature to guide practitioners on how to integrate the GLM into their practice with mentally disordered offenders. The aim of this article is to present a set of resources (the GLM tool kit) tailored for use with offenders with mental disorder.

Each of the five resources that comprise the tool kit will be described, the theoretical, methodological and practical considerations that influenced their development will be reviewed, and a case example demonstrating their clinical application, presented.

The tool kit can guide forensic mental health practitioners in assessment, case conceptualization and rehabilitation planning according to the Good Lives Model. It includes some practical resources that practitioners can use to help mentally disordered offenders understand themselves better, including the reasons why they came to offend, and to highlight what they need to change to live better lives.

The paper provides clinicians with some structure in applying the Good Lives Model within a forensic mental health team context.

Much of the GLM practice literature relates to non‐mentally disordered offenders. The paper builds on this literature by presenting a set of tools that have been designed specifically with mentally disordered offenders in mind.