Twenty doctors and nurses working across the penitentiary system in North Macedonia advanced their skills on medical ethics by attending an online training session on 11 December 2020. The focus of the training was on mental health services in prisons and the provision of and treatment of users of psychoactive substances.

Despite the additional challenges caused by Covid-19, the participants were actively engaged in discussing the topics related to their daily work. The training provided an opportunity to exchange views on key issues faced by the practitioners. In addition, the medical staff can now benefit from the translation of this manual into Macedonian language.

This training was delivered by Dr Jörg Pont, author of the Council of Europe publication “Prison healthcare and medical ethics”, tailored for prison healthcare workers and other staff who have responsibility for the prisoners’ well-being.

This activity was organised under the auspices of the Action “Enhancing the capacities of the penitentiary system and the external oversight mechanism in North Macedonia”, co-funded by the European Union and the Council of Europe within the “Horizontal Facility for Western Balkans and Turkey 2019-2022” and implemented by the Council of Europe.