Elien Neimeijer

118 care for individuals with MID-BIF and future directions for research are also discussed. 1. Key finding one: Group Climate can be measured in individuals with MID-BIF in secure forensic care In this dissertation the perspectives and narratives of clients with MID-BIF were the fundamental precept in exploring group climate. As they are experiencing the group climate and cannot escape it, they can give the most valuable insights. The GCI has the potential to be an important self-report questionnaire for studies examining (changes in) group climate and secure forensic treatment in general targeting individuals with MID-BIF. Clients were asked to give their opinion about the support they receive from sociotherapists, possibilities for growth, the atmosphere at the living group and repres- sion. The overall climate scale of the GCI captures all four dimensions and can be seen as ‘bipolar’. At the ‘positive’ end of the scale group climate should be regarded as open and therapeutic, whereas at the ‘negative’ end of the scale group climate should be regarded as closed and repressive, hampering treatment of any form. Mapping this scale (i.e. group climate) turned out to be possible in a reliable and valid way for this target group in se- cure forensic care, just as it had been already shown in other settings such as residential youth care, prisons and psychiatric (forensic) institutions and for different age groups (Van der Helm, 2011). By means of assessing group climate and giving staff feedback about the results, a voice was given to a target group whose voice is not often heard in scientific research. Despite the fact that limited research has been done on the perspective of clients in forensic care, the importance of this type of research (about and by clients) for improve- ment of care is underlined by several researchers (Coffey, 2006; Gildberg, Elverdam, & Hounsgaard, 2010; Goddess, 2008). While in the last decade there has been an increas- ing number of studies in forensic settings from the client’s perspective (see e.g., Clarke, Lumbard, Sambrook, & Kerr, 2016; Doyle, Quayle, & Newman, 2017; Shepherd, Doyle, Sanders, & Shaw, 2015) little attention has been paid so far to the perspectives of individ- uals with MID-BIF in forensic care. What we learn from research from the client’s per- spective mainly concerns the importance of “being seen and heard” and “having a voice”. Most of the experiences of clients can be traced back to a central experience to be heard or not heard (Schäfer & Peternelj-Taylor, 2003; Van den Hooff, & Goossensen, 2013). As discussed in the introduction of this chapter, the quality of the therapeutic relationship with sociotherapists is of great importance to clients, which is partially influenced by the