The very real failer of goverments claim that they are reablitating prisoners when in fact they causing mental health on the prisoners

Found that mental health did not accurately reflect an individuals’ care needs.

During the visit, commissioners met eight prisoners and viewed their mental health records.

HMP Shotts has been instructed by Mental Welfare Commissioners for Scotland to act on five recommendations, one as a matter of urgency, following a recent inspection.

During the visit, commissioners met eight prisoners and viewed their mental health records. They also met the prison’s mental health clinical manager, the governor and three mental health nurses.

The visit was a follow-up from a previous inspection in May 2014, when the Mental Welfare Commission for Scotland made recommendations around access to psychological therapies and the need to review the nursing provision on site.

During the most recent visit, they inspected nursing care plans and notes to ensure these were meeting the care needs of prisoners being supported by the mental health staff.

Although the commission expects a response to each of its recommendations for change within three months of the report being published, its findings did call for the prison’s mental health clinical manager to review care plans and nursing notes ”as a matter of urgency” to ensure they accurately reflect individuals’ care needs.

The report also called for NHS Lanarkshire managers to “review the nursing staff complement at the prison to ensure all available treatments can be offered to the benefits of the prisoners and that mental health nurse skills are utilised appropriately”.

Commissioners – comprising a nursing officer and two social workers – also want NHS Lanarkshire managers to consider further options of access to psychological therapies appropriate for the prison population at the Shotts site.

And they want NHS Lanarkshire to review psychiatric input to the prison to ensure prisoners’ needs are appropriately addressed.

The report also states: “The prison governor and the mental health clinical manager should consider a robust roll-out of mental health first aid training for prison officer staff.”

In their report, published last week, commissioners say: “We were pleased to note that there is now clinical psychology input to the prison. The clinical psychologist is available four sessions per week. She offers individual sessions to prisoners and support to the nurses.”

The report continues: “We were informed that a locum psychiatrist has been covering but this is about to end. On viewing care records we are aware that there is a high use of medication across the site.

“We feel that for this to be appropriately managed there needs to be consistent psychiatry input at consultant or higher trainee level. From visits to other prisons we are aware that there are higher levels of visiting psychiatry input to cover the high demand on the mental health team.”

Commissioners welcomed the workshop opportunities that are available to prisoners and the fact that there are ample work opportunities available for the prison population.

The Health and Social Care North Lanarkshire lead for prisoner healthcare at Shotts Prison, said: “We welcome the report by the Mental Welfare Commission into Shotts Prison.

“We are pleased that the inspectors found that prisoners were complimentary of the support and care offered by the mental health team.

“Many of the recommendations within the report are already in place and we are committed to making further improvements to address the requirements detailed in the report.

“We continually monitor progress to ensure we strive for the highest standards of care.”?