Psychiatric treatment in custody is of increasing importance due to the fact that an increasing part of prisoners is suffering from mental health problems. Therefore it is necessary that the correctional staff gets regular training in suicide prevention to be able to react properly in case of a suicide attempt.
The general prison environment should be as stress-free as possible. Attention needs to be paid therefore to the quality of the social climate, minimizing bullying and other violence among the inmates and to maximize supportive relationships among prisoners and staff.
To prevent suicides in this high-risk setting, systematical screenings have to be done repeatedly in order to identify inmates who may be at high risk or whose profile has changed.
Not only the communication among the staff and the inmates but especially the communication between the staff members is important to be informed about high-risk inmates.
Written procedures which outline minimum requirements for housing high-risk inmates must be available.
If pharmacological treatment is needed, a staff member should always be present to control the correct taking and to avoid drug abuse.
Be aware of developing sufficient links to external community-based mental health services in addition to the internal staff, which will be decisive in a critical situation.
In case of a suicide attempt it is suggested to have a full documentation about the incident to be able to identify ways of improving the necessary steps in suicide detection, monitoring and management in the correctional institution.
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