'Seena Fazel, professor of Forensic Psychiatry at the University of Oxford (Oxford, UK) and a Wellcome Trust senior research fellow, is very focused on improving adverse outcomes for forensic psychiatry patients and providing an informed and intelligent picture of risks. Far from giving the usual psychiatrist's speech on blaming the media for sensationalist portrayals of dangerous individuals, he lays some of the blame with psychiatrists themselves for trying to provide reassurance without having the data. As well as undertaking many epidemiological investigations on the links between mental illness and crime using novel designs, he aims to improve these risk assessments and contribute towards these data. Fazel explains that this topic is one of the most controversial areas for forensic mental health—weighing up risks, delineating modifiable risk factors, and engaging with the media to communicate these clearly.'
Read the full article in The Lancet Psychiatry here
See Seena Fazel's profile at Oxford Department of Psychiatry