Prof. Dr. Stefan Frühwald und Dr. Patrick Frottier were able to develop an effective instrument for suicide prevention in correctional institutions for the first time, named VISCI that is based on a unique case-control study of every suicide that occurred in Austrian correctional institutions between 1975 and 1999.
The VISCI questionnaire shows immediate results without the need of special psychological staff or without being very cost-intensive and can easily be used in any correctional institution.
Therefore VISCI meets three main requirements for a successful intervention:
- The VISCI questionnaire can be carried out by the regular prison staff. There is no need for additional psychological trained personal.
- The screening instrument allows an immediate allocation of the inmate in one of three defined risk groups. According to these groups the prison staff has exact guidelines on how to treat the inmate. Only in the highest risk group the examination through a psychologist or psychiatrist is needed.
- The number of wrongly positive identified inmates is so low that it is economically tolerable.
To get the best results in behalf of suicide prevention, the VISCI questionnaire should be part of the all day admission routine. This is also a recommendation of the WHO, who states that the suicide risk is extremely high at the beginning of custody.
|
| |
LINKS |
| |
|
| |
|
| |
|
| |
|
| |
|
| |
