RRU, Madhya Pradesh prisons department sign MoU to provide specialised mental healthcare to inmates

BHOPAL: After having already partnered with prison and correctional departments in multiple states, including Gujarat, Karnataka and Uttar Pradesh, the Gandhinagar-based Rashtriya Raksha University (RRU) signed an MoU with Madhya Pradesh State Prisons and Correctional Services Department on Thursday.

Key points

• For our 42, 000-plus inmates in various prisons/correctional centres throughout the state, we already have dedicated in-house hospitals and dispensaries.
• Why is the Psychological Social Care Centre needed for jail inmates in MP?
• After MP, the RRU-Gandhinagar is working at a similar MoU with Maharashtra for the psychological well being of their jail inmates, importantly.
• When compared to the general population, those housed in prisons are at 2-3 times more risk of becoming vulnerable to psychological and mental health problems.
• Further, 19 barracks in jails of MP, are dedicated to inmates suffering from severe mental illness.

Meanwhile, the partnership will pave the way for rendering professionalized, expert and institutional psychological care for inmates, needing specialized mental health care throughout prisons in MP.

Notably, the first development arising out of the MoU will be the establishment of a specialised and dedicated Psychological Social Care Centre for inmates at the Bhopal Central Jail in the Madhya Pradesh capital.

After the start of the dedicated centre at the Bhopal Central Jail next month, similar centres will be began by the RRU in association with MP Jail Department in other jails throughout the state in a phased manner.

At the first Psychological Social Care Centre coming up next month at the Bhopal Central Jail, the experts from the central university-cum-institution of national importance will employ their successful model of identifying jail inmates. This person need specialised psychological or psychiatric care.

"Our dedicated team of forensic and clinical psychologists will apply our successful model already in practice in prisons of other partner states, to identify the inmates needing psychological care. Baseline assessment via specialized tests will be done and the outcome of the assessment will guide in deciding which of the inmates actually need psychological care interventions. The subsequent psychological interventions will be regularly reviewed and the results will be measured to achieve the desired results for the concerned inmates. If the psychological interventions don't resolve the mental health problems of the inmates, then the concerned inmates may be referred for specialized psychiatric mental health care and treatment at referral hospitals, " informed Noorin Choudhary, the Director and Associate Professor Practice (Forensic Psychology) at RRU-Gandhinagar's School of Behavioural Sciences and Forensic Investigations (SBSFI).

Not only will the new centre at Bhopal Central Jail render specialized psychological care to the jail inmates facing various psychological problems, but it will additionally enable research activities by the RRU students under the guidance of faculties.

"The research will entail a sizeable gamut of matters, spanning from common challenges of the jail inmates to their risk assessment and examining their daily activities and behaviour to even helping decide which vocational activity will be the best for them inside the jail based on the individual inmate's psychological and personality traits. The research on inmates will particularly aim at enhancing psychological rehabilitation of inmates, " she continued.

During its four year long association with the prison-correctional services department of Gujarat, the RRU researchers have come out with 16 dissertations/research papers, whose findings will be published shortly.

While the upcoming centre for psychological social care at Bhopal Central Jail will primarily focus on psychological care of inmates and research on related aspects, the newly forged partnership between RRU and MP Prison and Correctional Services Department will additionally enable in training the correctional officers of various prisons in the state, particularly in identifying the inmates who need urgent psychological care.

"Back in April-May, the first batch of our correctional officers underwent training at RRU and in the coming weeks and months, we'll have similar training programmes for our other officers and staff. It will particularly focus on training them as master trainers. Once trained, the master trainers will render similar training to other staff members in respective jails in MP, " state's Director General (Jails) Varun Kapoor remarked.

"For our 42, 000-plus inmates in various prisons/correctional centres throughout the state, we already have dedicated in-house hospitals and dispensaries. But these in-house facilities cater to their physical health and not mental health. We only have one psychological counsellor at Bhopal Central Jail and nowhere else, owing to which the mental health problems of various inmates largely remain unaddressed professionally. We do have 19 barracks at prisons throughout MP, where severely mentally challenged inmates are housed, but the need of the hour is the psychological screening of each and every inmate, for which this MoU has been signed, " Kapoor went on.

Emotional stress, inability to accord with guilt and remorse arising out of the alleged crime committed by them, longing for family, confinement for longer periods in cells, delay in justice and substance abuse related difficulties, particularly create jail inmates vulnerable to mental health matters.

Researches by RRU students-faculties at the four central jails in Gujarat, including Ahmedabad, Rajkot, Vadodara and Surat, have made public that the sleep cycles of inmates are particularly disturbed, specially ahead of after their bail hearings in court, making them gullible to mental health matters.

Meanwhile, the evidence-based research conducted among inmates in jails of Gujarat indicated that sustained psychological care resulted in over 35% improvement in mental and psychological state of inmates facing mental health matters.

Additionally, training of correctional officers at RRU has resulted in more than 85% of the trained correctional officers successfully and timely identifying inmates having psychological matters, resulting in their timely reporting for specialised care.

Further, 19 barracks in jails of MP, are dedicated to inmates suffering from severe mental illness. To timely prevent other inmates from their mental health problems snowballing into irreversible difficulties, psychological care is urgently needed.

Taken together, the developments around RRU, Madhya Pradesh prisons department sign MoU to provide specialised mental healthcare point to a situation that is still moving, and the coming days should bring more clarity.