The Council of Europe and the European Union continue to support the further enhancement of skills of Georgian prison psychologists, psychiatrists and social workers in administering Suicide Prevention Programmed (SPP) in prisons. As a part of the support, on-site supervision of multidisciplinary teams of SPP has been launched in November 2016 and lasted till May 2017.
3 local CoE experts supervised the work of the multidisciplinary suicide prevention teams in the prior selected prisons. The supervision assesses the current situation in prisons, analyses how the trained prison staff implements the Suicide Prevention Programme, supports them and develops recommendations for further improvement.
On July 15, at 1-day working group meeting the local experts as well as the members of the multidisciplinary teams discussed and shared opinions on the results and problematic areas identified during the administering of the SPP.
The introduction and implementation of the SPP is supported by the CoE since its launch in 2013. International experts were involved in the development of the programme, different corresponding documents were reviewed in light of the relevant CoE recommendations, other international standards and best practices.In addition, several meetings were held with all stakeholders sharing best practices and experience.
Around 900 medical and non-medical staff members of prisons, as well as prison directors, deputy directors and chief doctors were trained so far using a programme and methodology specially designed for teaching suicide prevention protocol. The prison staff who underwent the training learnt more about suicide prevention activities and suicide management techniques and accordingly are equipped with the necessary skills to prevent suicide attempts in prisons to a possible extent and thus to contribute to the decrease in the number of suicide cases.
The supervision is a part of the Council of Europe and European Union Delegation support to improve the provision of mental health in Georgian prisons and other closed institutions. It was organised within the framework of the CoE/EU Partnership for Good Governance Project “Human Rights and Healthcare in prisons and Other Closed Institutions in Georgia II”.
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