Jail Department, RRU Join Hands For Mental Healthcare Of 42,000 Inmates In Bhopal

Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): To address the mental health issues of around 42,000 jail inmates, the jail department has inked a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Rashtriya Raksha University (RRU), director general of prisons and correctional services Varun Kapoor told media persons here on Thursday.

Kapoor added, “For our 42,000-plus inmates in various prisons/correctional centres across the state, we already have dedicated in-house hospitals and dispensaries. But these in-house facilities cater to their physical health and not mental health.

We only have one psychological counsellor at Bhopal Central Jail and nowhere else, owing to which the mental health issues of various inmates largely remain unaddressed professionally”.

He added, “We do have 19 barracks at prisons across MP, where severely mentally challenged inmates are housed, but the need of the hour is the psychological screening of each and every inmate, for which this MoU has been signed”.

Noorin Choudhary, director and associate professor practice (forensic psychology) at RRU-Gandhinagar's School of Behavioural Sciences and Forensic Investigations (SBSFI), said, “Our dedicated team of forensic and clinical psychologists will apply our successful model already in practice in prisons of other partner states, to identify the inmates needing psychological care”.

She further added that if the psychological interventions don't resolve the mental health issues of the inmates, then the concerned inmates may be referred for specialised psychiatric mental healthcare and treatment at referral hospitals.