Women with intellectual disability in secure settings and their mental health needs

Purpose - This article aims to describe the development of secure services for women with intellectual disability in the UK and to outline what is known about their mental health needs. Design/methodology/approach - The paper is a general review which is based on what is known historically about the subject, findings from the current literature and the author's own personal knowledge of these specialist services. Findings - Secure services for women with intellectual disability have developed out of mainstream forensic and learning disability services. Originality/value - Although there is a reasonable body of literature on offending in the intellectually disabled population as a whole, little of this is specific to women. Despite this, the evidence there is suggests that women continue to require secure services and that they have significant mental health needs.