The CONNECT Study: ‘Collaboration to establish a national database on the criminological and treatment outcomes of forensic psychiatric patients in Germany’

• Applicant: Professorin Dr. Birgit Völlm
• Subject Area: Public Health, Healthcare Research, Social and Occupational Medicine ; Clinical Psychiatry, Psychotherapy, Child and Adolescent Psychiatry ; Personality Psychology, Clinical and Medical Psychology, Methodology
• Term: since 2024
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 544266142

Forensic psychiatry aims to provide treatment for mentally disordered individuals who have offended whilst at the same time reducing their risk of harm or reoffending. § 63 of the German penal code (Strafgesetzbuch, StGB) is primarily aimed at individuals with major mental illnesses who are not fully responsible for a criminal act they committed. Their treatment is time-consuming and expensive and affects human rights of patients to a large extent. Therefore, therapeutic concepts and treatment organization should be guided by evidence based practices. Furthermore, it is imperative that the success or otherwise of these services is measured. Unfortunately, there is a lack of even basic information about the population of these forensic mental health patients in Germany and the outcomes of their treatment. This project aims to fill this gap. Data collection will be through an online questionnaire completed by staff at participating hospitals using routinely collected hospital data. The resulting database will include comprehensive clinical, legal and socio-demographic data and will serve to answer a range of scientific questions. We want to collect data on more than 4500 patients over an initial period of three years. Alongside important clinical data, we are also interested in outcomes following treatment. We will use official reoffending data (Bundeszentralregister) at a two-year follow-up to see whether or not discharged individuals reoffended, what these offences were, and what treatment variables predict this. This study is important for several reasons. First, there are currently no other research surveys that include the entire §63 StGB patient population. Our project will offer a much-needed overview of this group. Second, as patients receive care in restrictive environments for long periods of time, our findings will help identify important predictors of treatment and criminal outcomes that may improve the quality of care. Third, data will be made available to researchers at other institutes and results will be published in open-access journals, meaning that patients, carers, staff, policy-makers, hospitals and the public have a better understanding of this oftentimes neglected patient group.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants