Sorca Clarke (Longford-Westmeath, Sinn Fein)
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182. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality further to Parliamentary Question No. 652 of 7 July 2020, the most up-to-date information in relation to the ratio of psychologists, psychiatrists, social workers and addiction councillors per prisoner for each prison as of February 2021, in tabular form. [13858/21]

Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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As a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, the traditional manner of service delivery by psychology and addiction professionals in prisons have been impacted.

Engagement by services with prisoners has been impacted due to the implementation of essential infection control and operational regimes to keep prisoners and staff safe. This has required the development of new ways of working to support prisoners. Both services have adapted working arrangements to respond innovatively to supporting prisoners by introducing a blended model of working which facilitates prisoner engagement with practitioners employing a combination of mediums including telephony, video link and one to one contact, where deemed clinically necessary. However, notwithstanding this, service delivery is constrained and has resulted in a reduction of sessions delivered by Psychology and Addiction Services.

It important to note that services to prisoners, including healthcare and addiction services, are provided through a combination of staff directly employed or engaged by the Prison Service such as healthcare staff; psychologists and addiction counsellors, and other specialist and in-reach services provided by external agencies such as psychiatrists; dentists and social workers.

Many of the services that could be categorised as “social work” fall into a range of areas and responsibilities including: medical social workers; psychiatric social workers; housing welfare officers; and child welfare officers. These services are provided by a number of different agencies and in many cases are not provided by bespoke staff assigned to prisons therefore, the Prison Service does not have access to data on the ratio of the service provider to prisoner as per your question.

Information on the ratio of Psychologists per prisoner per prison, as it was on 28 February 2021, is set out in Table 1.

Merchants Quay Ireland (MQI) provide to the Prison Service 20 Addiction Counsellors across the Estate. They operate in all prisons except Arbour Hill as, given prisoner profile, there is minimal demand required for drug addiction counselling services at that location.

Probation Officers, many of whom are social work qualified, are assigned to work in prison settings nationally and work with identified prisoners as valued members of multi-disciplinary teams.This can mean working closely with prison staff, psychologists, addiction specialists and community based organisations. There are currently 25 Probation Officers and 8 Senior Probation Officers assigned to work specifically in Prison settings.

The Prison Service works with the HSE/National Forensic Mental Health Service (NFMHS) to ensure the appropriate provision of Psychiatric services to those in custody with mental health needs in all closed prisons.

In-reach mental health services are available in all Dublin prisons and in the Portlaoise Campus through collaboration with the NFMHS to provide forensic mental health sessions weekly in these prisons. Thirteen in-reach Community Psychiatric Nurses (CPNs) and two new social workers, attached to the NFMHS, are part of the in-reach multi-disciplinary teams. Since August 2019, a consultant psychiatrist has provided a mental health service in Castlerea prison.

Consultant Psychiatrist led services are provided to those in custody in Limerick and Cork prisons, by way of an agreement with the HSE. The NFMHS has confirmed that its current caseload includes up to 250 patients who are ordinarily in the custody of the Prison Service.

Information relating to psychiatrists and social workers was requested from the HSE and is set out in Table 2.

Psychiatric Services and Forensic Mental Health Social Workers are provided by the NFMHS on an in-reach basis.

Table 1: Staffing based on figures from 28/02/2021

Ratio of Psychiatrists, Psychiatric Nurse, Registrar and Mental Health Social Worker per prisoner - based on available bed space per prison.

Table 2: Staffing based on figures from 28/02/2021: Ratio of Addiction Counsellors per prisoner