The successes and challenges of developing a prison telepsychiatry service.
Prisoners are not typical of the general population with regard to their health needs, as they have a disproportionately high incidence of mental health problems and drug misuse. Health-care delivery in prison faces a significant number of challenges not experienced by other health-care organizations. Telepsychiatry is one strategy to improve the accessibility and quality of mental health-care in the prison setting. Despite some initial challenges, a telepsychiatry service was successfully established between a medium-secure unit in Fareham, Hampshire, and a category B training prison on the Isle of Wight. A low-cost, PC-based videoconferencing system was used, connected by ISDN lines at 128 kbit/s. A valuable lesson that was learnt was the importance of having the support of key individuals in a prison setting.
Leonard
Sarah
S
School of Nursing and Midwifery, University of Southampton, and Ravenswood House, Medium Secure Service, Fareham, UK. s.leonard@soton.ac.uk
D003695:Delivery of Health Care / Q000458:organization & administration; D004739:England; D006801:Humans; D008605:Mental Health Services / Q000458:organization & administration*; D011330:Prisons; D019114:Remote Consultation / Q000458:organization & administration*; D049269:Videoconferencing / Q000458:organization & administration