The challenges of treating the mentally ill in a prison setting: the European perspective

Abstract

Prisoners show a high prevalence of severe mental disorder all over the world. In many places, suicide is a leading cause of death in prison and suicidal ideation and suicide attempts are major problems for health professionals working behind bars. Most European countries provide access to healthcare for their citizens at a high or at least adequate level of care. For providing mental healthcare in prison in those countries, equivalence of care should be prevailed, which means that treatment standards in prison should be equivalent to treatment standards in public mental healthcare. Mental healthcare in prison should offer outpatient treatment as well as in-patient treatment, the latter ideally with an open-door setting. The principle of confidentiality applies to health professionals working in prison as to all other health professionals. Female prisoners are an even more vulnerable group than male prisoners.