October 19, 2021, in Vinnytsia, a training for the staff of penitentiary institutions was held to develop multidisciplinary skills ensuring the health care of prisoners. The development of the programme and training was supported by the Joint Project “European Union and Council of Europe working together to support the Prison Reform in Ukraine” (SPERU).
The event was attended by Vyacheslav Rudenko, Deputy Head of the Department for the Execution of Criminal Sanctions, and Olga Derkach, Senior Officer of the Joint Project “European Union and Council of Europe working together to support the Prison Reform in Ukraine”.
The training consists of four thematic modules. Prison staff are trained to identify and help solve prisoners' problems related to: 1) drug and alcohol addiction; 2) HIV / AIDS, STIs; 3) mental health; 4) suicides.
Vyacheslav Rudenko, Deputy Head of the Department for the Execution of Criminal Sanctions, addressing the participants of the training, emphasized: “You are the first line that stands between a prisoner and an institution. You are the ones who encounter health problems of prisoners on the ground. You are the ones who can bring about change, promote penitentiary reform and implement European standards”.
The target audience of the program is the staff of the State Criminal-Executive Service of Ukraine, who has no special knowledge in the field of medicine, but constantly maintains contacts with convicts and prisoners - junior inspectors, other employees of regime services, social and educational services, etc.
The aim of the program is to train the State Criminal-Executive Service of Ukraine staff to apply multidisciplinary skills to ensure the health of prisoners, as well as to teach and help put into practice tools to identify and prevent prisoners' health problems.
The training is based on internationally recognized scientific psychological, sociological and criminological theories and research.
The training program is supplemented by thematic materials for trainers, presentations, the manual that contains general advice on the preparation of the training, the most important issues to be considered, as well as guidelines and advice on its start and end.
The EU and Council of Europe Joint Project “Support to Prison Reform in Ukraine – SPERU” is designed to promote human rights compliant management of prisons, including better alignment of prison healthcare provisions with European standards.
