Innovative Program For Mentally Ill Inmates To Debut
Posted on Friday, 22 of August , 2008 at 7:43 pm

ALBANY—A groundbreaking, foundation-funded program aimed at providing individualized programs for mentally ill inmates that could serve as a national model is scheduled to make its debut at Fishkill Correctional Facility this year, with Sing Sing and Bedford Hills Correctional Facilities expected to follow in 2009.

The Center for Urban Community Services together with the New York State Office of Mental Health (OMH) and New York State Department of Correctional Services (DOCS) will introduce an evidence-based practice for persons with mental illness, known as Wellness Self Management (WSM) at the three state correctional facilities. The project will be funded by the Jacob and Valeria Langeloth Foundation.  

Through this pilot project, CUCS will assist inmates with mental illness to better manage their illness both during their incarceration and following their release as they transition back to into the outside community.  

Among the strategies that will be used by CUCS within the prison system:  

–Teaching concrete skills and strategies for better managing the inmate’s illness

Customized Wellness Self Management (WSM) to include concrete skills and strategies for managing life while incarcerated  

–Assisting in transition to the community by customizing WSM to include a concentration of planning for transition to the community  

–Evaluating the extent to which WSM improves participant outcomes in several areas, including: increased understanding of mental illness and strategies to manage their illness; reduction in disciplinary actions while incarcerated; and improved rates of successful transition to the community  

–Provide training to staff working on-site in correctional facilities  

CUCS will provide Wellness Self Management programs to a minimum of 126 inmates with mental illness among the three state correctional facilities as well as train a minimum of 35 NYS Office of Mental Health and/or NY State Department of Correctional Services staff at these facilities. If the program is judged to be successful, wide-scale dissemination of the project would begin so that the project can be implemented in correctional facilities throughout the United States  

According to Department of Correctional Services Commissioner Brian Fischer, “people with mental illness are a growing part of New York’s incarcerated population, and we are grateful to the Center for Urban Community Services for bringing this foundation-funded program into our correctional system. In addition to providing critical assistance for mentally ill inmates to cope with life in prison, Wellness Self Management will help them prepare for life in the community afterwards - a transition that is tough even for offenders without mental illness.”  

In order to provide new knowledge to the field, a primary aim of this pilot project is to evaluate whether WSM can have other beneficial effects for inmates with mental illness. To advance the use of WSM in the corrections system, CUCS will, for the first time, test whether inmates participating in WSM have lower rates of disciplinary action while incarcerated than mentally ill inmates who do not receive WSM and whether inmates completing WSM have lower rates of recidivism than mentally ill inmates who do not receive WSM.   8-22-08

http://www.northcountrygazette.org/2008/08/22/mental_inmates/