Memorandum submitted by the Royal College
of Psychiatrists
Thank you for giving us the opportunity to send
written evidence to your committee inquiry into the subject of
prison education. As psychiatrists, we have increasing responsibilities
for the mental health care of prisoners.
Mental health care is not necessarily about
education and skills, but education and skills are very much part
of the psychological life of all of us, including prisoners. We
feel strongly therefore that there is a very important need for
mental health teams and prison educationalists to work closely
together. We accept that variations will occur between prisons,
and that individualisation of programmes for prisoners is the
best way of making good use of scarce resources. Nevertheless,
we would like to make a few general points for your consideration:
— Education plans should be incorporated
into a patient's Mental Health Act care plan as educational sessions
could form part of a patient's treatment.
— Patients with active mental health
treatment in the prison should have the same access to educational
activities as other prisoners.
— Patients in health care centres should
have full access to education within prisons.
— Education plans should include provision
for those with special needs, for example those with enduring
mental illness, those with mild learning disability and prisoners
with severe personality disorder.
— Educational activities might include
education on drugs/alcohol and health promotion (ie use of exercise,
diet, creative activity and self help systems).
— Educational modules could help people
to develop skills to use community recourses such as drug and
alcohol teams, mental health teams, psychotherapy or the voluntary
sector.
— In some cases programmes could be
developed to provide education about the effects of sexual abuse.
To reiterate the most important point we have
to make, we believe that educational and treatment programmes
for people with mental disorders of all kinds should be integrated
after discussion between teachers, psychologists, and psychiatrists
about individual prisoners' particular needs.
June 2004
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