An instrument to measure the security needs of patients in medium security

The paper describes a four-point scale to measure the level of security required by patients in medium security. The scale was retrospectively applied to case-notes for 3,396 admissions to medium security over a 7-year period from a defined geographical area of England. Preliminary findings suggest satisfactory content validity and that the four-level rating system successfully discriminates between admissions according to four levels of security. Further research is required on the reliability of the instrument and to demonstrate whether the scale can be used as a proxy measure for the burden of care imposed by admissions to medium secure services.