Module 8 Assignment
Mental health care for all in prisons
Area of action:  National health services
Objective: Promote and protect rights of individuals who suffer from mental disorders 
Strategy: Develop policy with matching legislation, that addresses the right to the highest attainable standard of health, the forming of a national body responsible for the monitoring and evaluation of human rights of people suffering from mental disorders, and prohibiting the imprisonment of people with mental disabilities due to lack of public mental health service alternatives.

Objective: Reduce pressure on prison health services
Strategy:   Address challenges relating to adequate health care provision in general population and improve access to health care services by the poor, homeless, unemployed and people with mental disabilities. Address the lack of community care facilities, sothat many offenders with mental disabilities could be diverted to appropriate treatment programmes or support services, rather than being sent to prison.
 
Objective: Reduce mental disabilities in general population
Strategy:  Train health workers to enhance their ability to detect both mental health care needs and substance dependency and intervene at an early stage, before mental distress develops into a more serious problem. 
Objective: Prevent self-harm and suicide
Strategy:  Develop protocol for suicide prevention

Objective: Reduce the stigma and discrimination associated with mental health problems and increase acceptance toward people with mental health problems
Strategy: Develop a national mental health anti-stigma and anti-discrimination awareness campaign that will address among others the misconception that all people with mental disorders are a danger to the public, and the general intolerance to difficult or disturbing behaviour.

Objective: All round mental health situation, including mental health in prisons, is monitored at national level
Strategy: Develop a comprehensive mental health information system that allows independent monitoring mechanisms, reporting to independent bodies. 

Area of action:  Prison services

Objective: Protect the mental well-being of all prisoners including foreign national prisoners: improve conditions, provide a safe and positive prison environment, and prevent mental disabilities from developing or worsening
Strategy: Develop  policies that:
1.	ensure provision of the underlying determinants of health, such as adequate space, nutrition, clean drinking water, sanitation, heating, fresh air, natural and artificial light, provision of purposeful activities and mental stimulation, as well as contact with the outside world. 
2.	address violence ( physical, sexual, psychological violence and bullying)  
3.	prepare prisoners for their life inside prison, and that ensure that a careful prisoner differentiation according to risk category is undertaken on entry to prison.  
4.	address gender-specific mental health service for women prisoners, those with intellectual disabilities, and foreign national prisoners, taking into account their different mental health care needs
5.	increase the integration of prison and civil health care services in order to improve prospects of equivalence of care in prisons on admission and continuum of care following release from prison.

Objective: Reduce mental disabilities in prison
Strategy: Increase the number and capacity of mental health personnel with specialized skills in identifying and managing mental disabilities in each prison, sothat every prisoner undergoes a health assessment on entry to prison, which includes assessment to determine mental disabilities, risk of self-harm and suicide, and screening for the presence of possible co-morbid substance disorders. Provide support and in-service training to the staff, and ensure that the employment conditions of those staff are attractive. 

Objective: Improve cooperation with community mental health care services, to ensure equivalence of care and continuity of treatment   		
Strategy: Appointment of mental health coordinators to coordinate with the community health service providers and probation services, in order to ensure that the complex needs of prisoners with mental disabilities are met, spanning the period from prison admittance to post-release support. Apply clear lines of accountability and the same inspection and monitoring regimes which exist in the community to the prison health services, including mental health services.

Objective: Increase understanding of mental disabilities and reduce stigmatizing attitude among prison staff
Strategy: Raise awareness of human rights. Train administrators and prison staff on basic mental health issues to enhance their understanding of mental disabilities. Provide training and supervision of prison health personnel from Ministries of Justice and Health, to enable them to fulfill their responsibilities effectively. 

Objective: Increase social reintegration and the prevention of re-offending
Strategy:  Develop continuum of care protocols and mechanisms with community mental health systems to break the cycle of release, re-offending and imprisonment. Address causes of re-offending 

Objective: Quality care for foreign national prisoners
Strategy: Appoint a foreign national policy and strategy adviser at headquarters. Develop guidelines that address the need of foreign national prisoners. Train staff dealing with foreign national prisoners