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Unmet Mental Health Needs In Prisonprepared Bydate Abstract Practically ...



Unmet Mental Health Needs in PrisonPrepared byDate
Abstract
Practically 69,000 persons of the total number of 76,000 odd prisoners interned in prisons in England and Wales suffer from at least one form of mental illness, and many of them show signs of two or more illnesses. Comorbidity is the norm rather than the exception in British prisons. A number of studies and surveys, conducted during the last 10 years have revealed the existence of a situation of horrifying dimensions, vis-à-vis the mental health conditions and unmet needs of prisoners in UK prisons, and led to a number of far reaching and widespread initiatives aimed at improving the standards of mental healthcare available to prisoners in the UK. While governmental, political and legal initiatives to improve mental health standards have now been in process for quite a few years, noticeable improvement is till to be recorded.
The reasons for these tragic circumstances lie in a host of reasons that have their origin in societal attitudes and have been further compounded by years of unfeeling and unthinking bureaucrats and policymakers who have not bothered about the needs of prisoners housed in British jails and allowed the situation to exacerbate until it has reached today's levels where practically every prisoner housed in a British prison has some sort of mental illness. My examination and analysis of material available on the subject during the course of this dissertation lead me to conclude that while the government has initiated a number of initiatives to improve the situation a drastic change in attitude and perception towards the problem is essential if results are to be achieved. Table of Contents
Serial
Details
Page

1
Introduction
4

a
Overview
4

b
Definition of Problem
5

c
Objectives and Purpose
5

d
Research Questions
6

e
Structure
6

2
Methodology and Limitations
7

a
Methodology
7

b
Limitations
7

3
Historical Progression of Mental Health
Issues in Society and Prisons
8

4
Overview of Prisoners with Mental Health
Problems in UK
11

5
Current Conditions in UK Prisons and their
Impact on Prisoners with Mental Ailments
14

6
Unmet Mental Health Needs in prisons
17

7
Current Initiatives
23

8
Conclusions
24


Appendices
28


Bibliography
30


List of Tables
Table 1: The prison population on 30 June 2002 by type of prisoner and gender: Page 11
Table 2: Mental health problems in prisons and the general population: Page 12
List of Appendices
Appendix 1
Initiatives adopted by the NHS to improve the mental health of the community after the publication of the National Service Framework for Mental Health in 1999. Page 28


1. Introduction
a.

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