Working in any area of mental health nursing presents complex issues regarding the nurse-patient relationship. For those working in prolonged clinical contact with offenders, relationships with patients and colleagues can be particularly emotionally intense and sometimes difficult to express. This book attempts to understand and articulate the emotional labour of forensic nursing and explores the challenge of establishing and maintaining therapeutic relationships with offenders.

The first book to consider the emotional and relational component of forensic mental health nursing, the chapters cover a number of specialist forensic areas from this psychodynamic perspective, such as women’s services, services for people with personality disorders, intensive care, high security psychiatric hospitals, medium secure units and services for adolescent offenders. A chapter on therapeutic communities is also included, along with chapters on challenging relational phenomena such as working with hate and the difficulties of managing difference when working in environments that produce high levels of anxiety.

Therapeutic Relationships with Offenders provides essential information for mental health nurses working in the forensic field and will be of interest to any professionals working with challenging populations and people with personality disorders.