Development and Impact of a Specialist Formulation Tool Piloted in the OPD Women's Pathway.

Abstract

Background: This was an evaluation of the quality of formulations for women within a community offender personality disorder pathway (OPDP) service. The evaluation was conducted following the delivery of a bespoke 'formulating females who offend' training event using a bespoke gender-responsive audit tool.

Aims: The aims of this evaluation were to use and review a bespoke gender-specific formulation audit tool and to evaluate the impact of a formulation training package on the quality of formulations and referral rates for women in the OPD pathway.

Methods: A training day was held for a range of professionals working within the OPD women's pathway. Professionals were requested to submit formulations they had completed prior to the training day and following the training day. Data was analysed using both descriptive and inferential statistics.

Results: The results demonstrated that there was a significant difference between women with a formulation and those without a formulation on number of referrals to relevant services. However, formulation audit scores showed no significant differences scores pre and post training.

Conclusions: This evaluation successfully utilised a gender-specific formulation audit tool for women who have offended. Use of formulation increased referrals, which has the potential to improve wellbeing and reduce risk for complex women in the criminal justice system. There was no significant improvement in the quality of formulations written after attendance at a training event. The authors provide suggestions for a future evaluation to improve the audit tool by establishing a threshold for adequacy. Recommendations are made to improve staff skills in formulation by including a more extensive development package.