Dr. Emma Regan:

As mentioned in the opening statement, there are 2,000 people currently seeing or waiting to see a psychologist in the Prison Service. We have an open referral policy. Anybody can refer, from a family member to a peer or a prison officer.

Once somebody is referred, he or she is triaged by the psychology service, which involves between two and six sessions with a psychologist to get a broad sense of what his or her needs are. If the issue has not been brought in with the person into custody or it is not being picked up initially, when people are quite chaotic, this is a good time to identify his or her needs. We are picking up very significant mental health issues, head injuries, ADHD, autism, learning difficulties and, in some cases, dementia.

For example, in terms of autism, eight people have been identified in the past year and we currently engage with an external psychologist to complete assessments. Of those eight people, seven have received a full diagnosis of autism. At that point, with their permission we will discuss that at the multi-agency meeting, which happens weekly in each prison and at which representatives of psychiatry and nursing, GPs, psychologists and governors attend. At that point, a plan is put in place around their care. It is essentially a care plan, which in prison terms we call a sentence plan. That would include, for example, things like accommodation, as well as additional treatment needs.

We also engage with community services which specialised in particular areas. In the case of someone with autism who is leaving custody, we try to engage him or her with community services who may be in a position to support an adult leaving custody with that diagnosis.