There are a wide variety of mental health services available to prisoners today. Not all programs are offered in all prisons and some programs are a lot more effective than others.
The types of mental health services available to prisoners today varies greatly depending on which prison someone finds themselves admitted into. Some prisons have more programs than others and the quality of each program varies as well.
Medication for Mentally Ill Prisoners
Virtually all prisons today will give access to psychotropic medications to inmates who are mentally ill. These medications can be used to relieve everything from depression and anxiety disorders to bipolar disorder and schizophrenia.
While medication can help control the negative behaviors that often come with mental illness, prisons that just deliver medication without any form of therapy do very little to help mentally ill prisoners. Those that make some of the following mental health services available to prisoners are far more effective at managing mental health disabilities in prisons.
Counseling Services in Prisons
Many prisoners are receiving group or individual counseling services while in prison, but the qualifications of the counselors providing these services varies greatly from one prison to another. Most programs are not well staffed or funded, which means that many of the inmates who could really benefit from extensive counseling are not included in the program.
Counseling mental health services available to prisoners can be extremely effective when it comes to allowing inmates to fix problems that have led to criminal activity. Better counseling programs with more funding could drastically reduce the amount of repeat crime taking place.
Specialized Therapies in Prisons
Many of the mental health services available to prisoners today are focused on specific problems that routinely lead to increased criminal behavior. For instance, most prisons now have programs aimed at helping with drug and alcohol addiction. Many programs for those who have been charged with sexual crimes are being implemented as well.
Self-Help Programs in Prisons
Since self-help programs that give prisoners the tools to delve into their own problems and help one another with mental and emotional issues are much cheaper to implement than programs that require professional counseling or therapies, more of self-help programs are being offered today.
There are also some rather unique mental health services available to prisoners today in select prisons which make use of animals, music, and art. These programs can be highly successful in rehabilitating prisoners suffering with mental illness.
There are some great mental health services available to prisoners today, but when you look at the big picture these programs are usually not enough to meet the mental health needs of all mentally ill prisoners.