Calendar An icon of a desk calendar. Cancel An icon of a circle with a diagonal line across. Caret An icon of a block arrow pointing to the right. Email An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of the Facebook "f" mark. Google An icon of the Google "G" mark. Linked In An icon of the Linked In "in" mark. Logout An icon representing logout. Profile An icon that resembles human head and shoulders. Telephone An icon of a traditional telephone receiver. Tick An icon of a tick mark. Is Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes. Is Not Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes with a diagonal line through it. Pause Icon A two-lined pause icon for stopping interactions. Quote Mark A opening quote mark. Quote Mark A closing quote mark. Arrow An icon of an arrow. Folder An icon of a paper folder. Breaking An icon of an exclamation mark on a circular background. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Caret An icon of a caret arrow. Clock An icon of a clock face. Close An icon of the an X shape. Close Icon An icon used to represent where to interact to collapse or dismiss a component Comment An icon of a speech bubble. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Ellipsis An icon of 3 horizontal dots. Envelope An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Home An icon of a house. Instagram An icon of the Instagram logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. Magnifying Glass An icon of a magnifying glass. Search Icon A magnifying glass icon that is used to represent the function of searching. Menu An icon of 3 horizontal lines. Hamburger Menu Icon An icon used to represent a collapsed menu. Next An icon of an arrow pointing to the right. Notice An explanation mark centred inside a circle. Previous An icon of an arrow pointing to the left. Rating An icon of a star. Tag An icon of a tag. Twitter An icon of the Twitter logo. Video Camera An icon of a video camera shape. Speech Bubble Icon A icon displaying a speech bubble WhatsApp An icon of the WhatsApp logo. Information An icon of an information logo. Plus A mathematical 'plus' symbol. Duration An icon indicating Time. Success Tick An icon of a green tick. Success Tick Timeout An icon of a greyed out success tick. Loading Spinner An icon of a loading spinner. Facebook Messenger An icon of the facebook messenger app logo. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Facebook Messenger An icon of the Twitter app logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. WhatsApp Messenger An icon of the Whatsapp messenger app logo. Email An icon of an mail envelope. Copy link A decentered black square over a white square.

Inverness Prison to get improved mental health care

HMP Inverness, also known as Porterfield Prison.
HMP Inverness, also known as Porterfield Prison.

Mental health services at overcrowded Inverness jail are to be improved following a visit by watchdog inspectors – including additional nurses and better access to psychological care.

Officials from the Mental Welfare Commission made an announced visit to the Victorian Porterfield Prison in September.

They made recommendations for an extra mental health nurse and improved psychological provision, and yesterday NHS Highland confirmed it was implementing these.

In a report published yesterday, the inspectors said: “There is currently only one mental health nursing post within the nursing complement in the health centre in the prison.


>> Keep up to date with the latest news with The P&J newsletter


“The mental health nursing service in the prison is very much a person dependent service, which does create issues in terms of prioritising work and providing mental health nursing cover when the post holder is on leave.”

They added: “The consultant forensic psychiatrist has a weekly clinic in the prison and is available for advice in urgent situations.”

But the report noted: “There is no clinical psychology provision within the prison and other psychological therapies are not available to prisoners either.”

The inspectors said mental health nurses in other prisons had trained to deliver specific psychological therapies, but they added: “It is difficult to see how interventions could be made available in HMP Inverness, with only one mental health nurse post.

“There would be issues releasing a single post holder to complete training, and subsequently allowing them to deliver training, when they have to prioritise other clinical tasks within the health centre.

“We heard that a substantial number of prisoners would benefit from having access to low level psychological therapies delivered by health centre staff, or accessed online or by the telephone.”

An NHS Highland spokesman said: “Increasing the mental health nursing team is a key priority and we have recently recruited to the addictions nurse post.

“The successful applicant commences in early 2019 and we have plans to recruit a further mental health nurse.

“We are also in a position where we are developing the role of psychology with two posts being considered to cover forensic/prison and drugs and alcohol.

“This will support integrated working and ensure throughcare plans are in place. These actions are well supported by our Scottish Prison Service colleagues and will be aligned with wider work to support those in our care.”