Mental health services have long been viewed as the Cinderella services of the National Health Service. Arguably this dearth of such services is further amplified in prison settings. Probably the two most common mental health issues in prisons are depression and drugs misusage. Both these issues are linked to inflated suicide rates and arguably especially so in prisons.
Both of these mental health needs can result in social exclusion.1 Indeed many prisoners are viewed as that critical group of ‘the difficult to reach’ in terms of their mental healthcare needs. But, of course, prisons present us with an excellent opportunity to engage effectively with this economically and socially deprived group. Prisons present healthcare workers with the opportunity to work with those in most need, at one level what could be more rewarding than that?
Imprisonment can be a depressing experience; indeed we know that it is…