Mental healthcare in prisons
Tuesday, 27 May 2008 14:27
Mental healthcare in prisons 'needs more funding'
Mental health services in England's prisons receive only one-third of the money they need, according to a new report.
The Sainsbury Centre for Mental Health (SCMH) claims that prison in-reach teams get £300 in funding for every prisoner in England when they need about £900 to offer the same level of service as community mental health services.
Its study also argues that prison mental health services in England face a postcode lottery in funding.
The research says funding for prison mental health is twice as high in London, Yorkshire and the north-east than it is in either the East Midlands or the south-west.
SCMH claims that this wide variation cannot be explained by higher costs or different needs between regions.
The centre wants to see the number of staff on prison in-reach teams increasing from an average of four to 12 to help all the prisoners with mental health problems.
About 4,700 prisoners get support from in-reach teams, SCMH says, but this is much less than the estimated one in twelve prisoners who has severe mental health problems.
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