Tuesday, 13 July 2021

Report Calls for Improvements to Mental Health Services in UK Prison System.

 

Leading mental health campaign group, The Centre for Mental Health has published a report on the state of mental health services in English prisons.

The report written by Dr Graham Durcan ‘The future of prison mental health care in England’ was commissioned by NHS England and NHS Improvement and the data used was gathered during the Summer of 2020. It is the latest in a series of reviews carried out by the Centre for Mental Health over the past 15 years.

The report finds that in general prison mental health services are working well and identifies several examples of good and innovative practice, however it points to actions that need to be taken in some key areas.

The report notes that the provision of services varies markedly in quality from prison to prison, noting problems around screening and assessment and accessing psychological therapies.

Problems were also noted in relation to pathways in and out of prison, particularly for inmates serving short sentences, support services for inmates following release and the impact of the pandemic on services and the mental wellbeing of prisoners.

Many of the problems identified in the report relate to England and the UK in general using custodial sentences more than its European neighbors. An issue of particular concern, the report found, was the ‘churn’ in prisoners serving multiple short sentences, making it problematic to provide support for those identified as having mental health issues.

There is, the report claims, strong evidence that were short term prison sentences to be replaced by community ones it would be of benefit to both individual offenders and wider society. This though, it also notes, is not reflected in current government policy, which focusses on building larger prisons to accommodate an ever-growing population.

Problems were identified in relation to communication between community mental health services and those in the prison system, with inmates often having difficulty accessing things like medication. Screening and assessment of newly incarcerated inmates presents problems, the report found that 75% of people needing support are not identified during induction.

Being released following completion of their sentence can also be a difficult time for people living with mental health issues. Many have difficulty finding work and accessing community support services, these problems have been intensified by cuts to the probation service.

The data used in the report was gathered during the first national lockdown when prison visits had been stopped and many activities such as education and work had been suspended indefinitely. These measures, though necessary to control the spread of the virus, led to most prisoners being in what amounted to solitary confinement, with an associated impact on their physical and mental wellbeing.

Unlike in wider society there was no corresponding move of meaningful activities online to provide at least limited mitigation, although the report finds that in many cases this could have been done.

The report makes seven recommendations for how services can be improved across the prison system, these include

Prison staff need to be better trained in understanding the mental health vulnerabilities of inmates coming into the system and reducing the use of short-term sentences with a realigned focus on using community punishment instead. The report also calls for improved continuity of care and support for people entering and leaving the prison system and improving the digital service capacity across the prison system.

The full text of the report can be read at:

https://www.centreformentalhealth.org.uk/sites/default/files/publication/download/CentreforMentalHealth_TheFutureofPrisonMentalHealthCare_0.pdf

 

 

 

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