Mental health and self harming behaviours of prisoners in Wales

Routinely collected prison data will be anonymously linked and made available to in the SAIL databank to researchers working on this project. Data will be used to explore whether prisoners have been diagnosed with mental health conditions or recorded self-harming behaviours before they entered prison, whether they develop these conditions or behaviours during their imprisonment time, and how these are affected on release. The findings of the study will improve understanding of self-harm and mental health in prisoners in Wales, thereby improving the mental health services provided to the prisoners during imprisonment and on release..

Key questions

This research aims to investigate mental health and self-harming behaviours among prisoners in Wales. It will compare the prevalence/incidence of mental health diagnoses or self-harm between prisoners and non-prisoners (from the general population with comparable age and sex in Wales), while exploring the risk factors for developing mental illnesses.

Research leads

Professor Ann John and Dr Mohamed Mhereeg, Swansea University (ADR Wales).

This project is funded by ADR Wales via its core grant from the Economic & Social Research Council (ESRC) as an ADR UK partner.