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Police and sniffer dogs in psychiatric settings

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

Najat Khalifa ,
Simon Gibbon  and
Conor Duggan
Najat Khalifa
Affiliation:
Section of Forensic Mental Health, Division of Psychiatry, University of Nottingham, Duncan Macmillan House, Porchester Road, Nottingham NG3 6AA, email: najat.khalifa@nottingham.ac.uk
Simon Gibbon
Affiliation:
Division of Psychiatry, University of Nottingham
Conor Duggan
Affiliation:
Division of Psychiatry, University of Nottingham
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Abstract

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Aims and Method

To study the views of staff and patients on the use of sniffer dogs to detect illicit drugs and the prosecution of in-patients suspected of taking illicit drugs. A 15-item self-report questionnaire was given to all in-patients and staff who had any contact with patients in a medium-secure unit. Responses to the individual statements were measured on a five-point Likert scale and staff and patients' responses were compared.

Results

We achieved a response rate of 63% (patient response rate, 71.6%; staff response rate, 60.7%). Overall there were fewer differences than anticipated, although, as expected, staff viewed the impact of illicit drugs more negatively than patients, and on the other hand, patients viewed the use of sniffer dogs and police involvement more negatively than the staff did.

Clinical Implications

Notice ought to be taken of the discordance between staff and patients' views (particularly in relation to consent and confidentiality) when attempting to detect and manage illicit drug use among psychiatric in-patients.

Type
Original papers
Information
Psychiatric Bulletin , Volume 32 , Issue 7 , July 2008 , pp. 253 - 256
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BY
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 2008

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