Prison psychiatry: Part 2 – clinical and legal issues

As a prison psychiatrist, you play a key role in the assessment and management of prisoners with a range of diagnoses. This experience can be a satisfying part of working in prison, as it helps you maintain a range of clinical skills.

It is likely that the prisoners under your care also suffer from particularly poor physical health, and as a psychiatrist you can significantly improve prisoners' health outcomes. Prison is where you may learn about interesting abuses of psychotropic medications, as well as everything you never knew you needed to know about illicit drugs.

Finally, working in prison requires a good grasp of mental health law, whether through ensuring prisoners lacking capacity are appropriately treated, or transferring prisoners to secure hospital beds when needed.

This module will examine psychiatric specialties, physical health and prescribing in prisons, and mental health legislation in prison. If you have not completed Prison psychiatry: Part 1 – mental health in prisons, it is recommended you do this before continuing as Part 2 builds on the content of the previous module; however, this is not essential. 

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