Corrections Community

Greetings -

There is all sorts of information out there concerning prevention of suicide and signs of suicidal behavior etc concerning the prisoner population. Does anyone have a lesson plan or a source of information from which a leson plan could be devleoped dealing with officer/staff mental health issues. I have the typical 'stress' information, but I am looking for something deeper than that. Suicide, domestic violence and so on.

Can anyone help?  Brad

Brad, it does differ depending on facility, system factors. Are you in a jail. prison or community corrections setting? It also differs depending on your core competency levels for staff. See our policy at http://www.doc.state.ok.us/Offtech/op140129.pdf for explanation. I have some suicide prevention research data and lesson plans for correctional facilities if you want to contact me at robert.powtzky@doc.state.ok.us I atatched a recent report we did in OK DOC. The biggest mistake people make in suicide prevention training is trying to make non-prison research and theory apply to correctional populations. Risk factors, demographics, response protocols, etc. are different in correctional settings than community settings, and they differ within correctional settings by system and facility variables. The best research describes the nature of the suicides in the last 10 years for your particular setting. Robert