Beyond the Walls: An Evaluation of a Pre-Release Planning (PReP) Programme for Sentenced Mentally Disordered Offenders
Background: Prison mental health services have tended to focus on improving the quality of care provided to mentally disordered offenders at the initial point of contact with the prison system and within the prison environment itself. When these individuals reach the end of their sentence and return...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , , , , , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Frontiers Media S.A.
2018-11-01
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| Series: | Frontiers in Psychiatry |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://www.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fpsyt.2018.00549/full |
| _version_ | 1818913031758807040 |
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| author | Damian Smith Damian Smith Susan Harnett Aisling Flanagan Sarah Hennessy Sarah Hennessy Pauline Gill Niamh Quigley Cornelia Carey Michael McGhee Aoife McManus Mary Kennedy Enda Kelly Jean Carey Ann Concannon Harry G. Kennedy Harry G. Kennedy Damian Mohan Damian Mohan |
| author_facet | Damian Smith Damian Smith Susan Harnett Aisling Flanagan Sarah Hennessy Sarah Hennessy Pauline Gill Niamh Quigley Cornelia Carey Michael McGhee Aoife McManus Mary Kennedy Enda Kelly Jean Carey Ann Concannon Harry G. Kennedy Harry G. Kennedy Damian Mohan Damian Mohan |
| author_sort | Damian Smith |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Background: Prison mental health services have tended to focus on improving the quality of care provided to mentally disordered offenders at the initial point of contact with the prison system and within the prison environment itself. When these individuals reach the end of their sentence and return to the community, there is an increased risk of morbidity, mortality, homelessness and re-imprisonment. New models of care have been developed to minimize these risks.Objectives: The objective of this project was to establish a Pre-Release Planning (PReP) Programme with social work expertise, to enhance interagency collaboration and improve continuity of care for mentally disordered offenders upon their release. We aimed to evaluate the first 2 years of the programme by measuring its success at improving the level of mental health support and the security and quality of accommodation achieved by participants upon release in comparison to that reported at time of imprisonment. Additionally, we aimed to explore the impact of these outcomes on rates of re-imprisonment.Methods: A process of participatory action research was used to develop and evaluate the first 2 years of the programme. This was a naturalistic prospective observational whole cohort study.Results: The PReP Programme supported 43 mentally disordered offenders, representing 13.7%, (43/313) of all new assessments by the prison's inreach mental health service during the 2 years study period. When compared with that reported at time of reception at the prison, gains were achieved in level of mental health support (FET p < 0.001) and security and quality of accommodation (FET p < 0.001) upon release. Of those participants seen by the PReP Programme, 20 (46.5%, 20/43) were returned to prison during the 2-years study period. There was no significant relationship between re-imprisonment and gains made in mental health support (FET p = 0.23) or accommodation (FET p = 0.23).Conclusions: We have shown that compared to that reported at time of reception at prison, the level of mental health support and the security of tenure and quality of accommodation both improved upon release following the intervention of the programme. Improved mental health support and accommodation were not associated with lower rates of re-imprisonment. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-19T23:24:02Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-f7578bfe8ed842979fafbd7d857cb4ae |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1664-0640 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-19T23:24:02Z |
| publishDate | 2018-11-01 |
| publisher | Frontiers Media S.A. |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Frontiers in Psychiatry |
| spelling | doaj.art-f7578bfe8ed842979fafbd7d857cb4ae2022-12-21T20:01:54ZengFrontiers Media S.A.Frontiers in Psychiatry1664-06402018-11-01910.3389/fpsyt.2018.00549413475Beyond the Walls: An Evaluation of a Pre-Release Planning (PReP) Programme for Sentenced Mentally Disordered OffendersDamian Smith0Damian Smith1Susan Harnett2Aisling Flanagan3Sarah Hennessy4Sarah Hennessy5Pauline Gill6Niamh Quigley7Cornelia Carey8Michael McGhee9Aoife McManus10Mary Kennedy11Enda Kelly12Jean Carey13Ann Concannon14Harry G. Kennedy15Harry G. Kennedy16Damian Mohan17Damian Mohan18National Forensic Mental Health Service, Central Mental Hospital, Dublin, IrelandDepartment of Psychiatry, Trinity College, Dublin, IrelandNational Forensic Mental Health Service, Central Mental Hospital, Dublin, IrelandNational Forensic Mental Health Service, Central Mental Hospital, Dublin, IrelandNational Forensic Mental Health Service, Central Mental Hospital, Dublin, IrelandDepartment of Psychiatry, Trinity College, Dublin, IrelandNational Forensic Mental Health Service, Central Mental Hospital, Dublin, IrelandNational Forensic Mental Health Service, Central Mental Hospital, Dublin, IrelandNational Forensic Mental Health Service, Central Mental Hospital, Dublin, IrelandNational Forensic Mental Health Service, Central Mental Hospital, Dublin, IrelandNational Forensic Mental Health Service, Central Mental Hospital, Dublin, IrelandIrish Prison Service, Dublin, IrelandIrish Prison Service, Dublin, IrelandIrish Prison Service, Dublin, IrelandNational Forensic Mental Health Service, Central Mental Hospital, Dublin, IrelandNational Forensic Mental Health Service, Central Mental Hospital, Dublin, IrelandDepartment of Psychiatry, Trinity College, Dublin, IrelandNational Forensic Mental Health Service, Central Mental Hospital, Dublin, IrelandDepartment of Psychiatry, Trinity College, Dublin, IrelandBackground: Prison mental health services have tended to focus on improving the quality of care provided to mentally disordered offenders at the initial point of contact with the prison system and within the prison environment itself. When these individuals reach the end of their sentence and return to the community, there is an increased risk of morbidity, mortality, homelessness and re-imprisonment. New models of care have been developed to minimize these risks.Objectives: The objective of this project was to establish a Pre-Release Planning (PReP) Programme with social work expertise, to enhance interagency collaboration and improve continuity of care for mentally disordered offenders upon their release. We aimed to evaluate the first 2 years of the programme by measuring its success at improving the level of mental health support and the security and quality of accommodation achieved by participants upon release in comparison to that reported at time of imprisonment. Additionally, we aimed to explore the impact of these outcomes on rates of re-imprisonment.Methods: A process of participatory action research was used to develop and evaluate the first 2 years of the programme. This was a naturalistic prospective observational whole cohort study.Results: The PReP Programme supported 43 mentally disordered offenders, representing 13.7%, (43/313) of all new assessments by the prison's inreach mental health service during the 2 years study period. When compared with that reported at time of reception at the prison, gains were achieved in level of mental health support (FET p < 0.001) and security and quality of accommodation (FET p < 0.001) upon release. Of those participants seen by the PReP Programme, 20 (46.5%, 20/43) were returned to prison during the 2-years study period. There was no significant relationship between re-imprisonment and gains made in mental health support (FET p = 0.23) or accommodation (FET p = 0.23).Conclusions: We have shown that compared to that reported at time of reception at prison, the level of mental health support and the security of tenure and quality of accommodation both improved upon release following the intervention of the programme. Improved mental health support and accommodation were not associated with lower rates of re-imprisonment.https://www.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fpsyt.2018.00549/fullprisonmental healthhomelesscontinuity of caretransitionparticipatory action research |
| spellingShingle | Damian Smith Damian Smith Susan Harnett Aisling Flanagan Sarah Hennessy Sarah Hennessy Pauline Gill Niamh Quigley Cornelia Carey Michael McGhee Aoife McManus Mary Kennedy Enda Kelly Jean Carey Ann Concannon Harry G. Kennedy Harry G. Kennedy Damian Mohan Damian Mohan Beyond the Walls: An Evaluation of a Pre-Release Planning (PReP) Programme for Sentenced Mentally Disordered Offenders Frontiers in Psychiatry prison mental health homeless continuity of care transition participatory action research |
| title | Beyond the Walls: An Evaluation of a Pre-Release Planning (PReP) Programme for Sentenced Mentally Disordered Offenders |
| title_full | Beyond the Walls: An Evaluation of a Pre-Release Planning (PReP) Programme for Sentenced Mentally Disordered Offenders |
| title_fullStr | Beyond the Walls: An Evaluation of a Pre-Release Planning (PReP) Programme for Sentenced Mentally Disordered Offenders |
| title_full_unstemmed | Beyond the Walls: An Evaluation of a Pre-Release Planning (PReP) Programme for Sentenced Mentally Disordered Offenders |
| title_short | Beyond the Walls: An Evaluation of a Pre-Release Planning (PReP) Programme for Sentenced Mentally Disordered Offenders |
| title_sort | beyond the walls an evaluation of a pre release planning prep programme for sentenced mentally disordered offenders |
| topic | prison mental health homeless continuity of care transition participatory action research |
| url | https://www.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fpsyt.2018.00549/full |
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