Treatment is provided in compliance with Finnish Current Care guidelines. However, the special nature of the patients’ problems often calls for the need to resort to individual solutions. The aim of the Niuvanniemi Hospital’s operations is to provide nationwide specialised forensic psychiatric treatment services in cooperation with the hospitals of regional hospital districts. The majority of patients suffer from schizophrenia. Patients also often suffer from violent behaviour and aggressiveness as well as substance abuse problems. Many of them have a history of treatment periods at psychiatric hospitals. These are some of the factors that set special requirements for the treatment provided at Niuvanniemi Hospital, the treatment methods used and related research and development.
Patient-centricity and multiprofessional teamwork form the starting points for treatment planning, implementation and evaluation. From the very beginning, patients participate in the treatment to the extent of their resources and abilities. When assessing the need for treatment, the patient is viewed holistically as a biopsychosocial entity. The patient information system’s assessment scales describing the patient’s condition and the treatment planning form designed by the Niuvanniemi Hospital enable comprehensive treatment planning, implementation and evaluation. Occasional patient surveys and the continuous patient feedback system provide valuable information on patient satisfaction regarding the treatment they receive, their experiences and assessment of factors beneficial to treatment; information which is important from the perspective of development of patient-oriented treatment. Treatment quality is also developed as required by the hospital’s quality control system.
When patients arrive at the hospital, the degree of their illness and issues with violent behaviour often require treatment to be started on the most secure wards of the hospital. Pharmacological treatment is often required to establish a treatment contact with the patient, needed for the use of interactive treatment methods. As the patient’s control over the illness and the violent behaviour improves, the patient is transferred to wards offering more liberties and responsibilities. Before being discharged from the hospital, patients get to practise life-management and self-control on rehabilitative treatment wards, which are used as a base for practising life outside the hospital, for example, by visiting home on leave from the hospital, and by visiting relatives, rehabilitation homes and hospitals providing further treatment.