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Mental health training for correctional officers: a systematic review
- Shaheen Darani, Sandy Simpson, Robert McMaster, Elena Wolff, Sarah Bonato, Graham Glancy, Jason Quinn
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- Journal:
- BJPsych Open / Volume 7 / Issue S1 / June 2021
- Published online by Cambridge University Press:
- 18 June 2021, p. S18
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- Article
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Aims
Mental illness amongst prison inmates is a prevailing issue across the world, as mental illnesses are overrepresented in correctional facilities when compared to community populations. Despite this, correctional officers receive little to no training on how to respond to inmates with mental illness. Implementing mental health training could improve officer knowledge, skills, and attitudes toward inmates with mental illness. This could lead to improvements in risk management, humane treatment of inmates, and interprofessional collaboration with healthcare providers. There is limited research on the educational value of inmate mental health training programs for correctional officers. As far as we are aware, there have been no prior reviews of this literature. The goal of the present study is to review this literature to explore the nature and effectiveness of correctional officer mental health training programs.
MethodMedical and criminal justice databases were searched for scientific articles describing correctional officer mental health training programs. All studies that included a measurable outcome on either correctional officer knowledge or inmate mental health were included in a final analysis. The review adhered to PRISMA guidelines for systematic reviews.
ResultOf 1492 articles identified using search terms, 11 were included in the analysis. 6 articles described mental health education programs, 2 articles described skill-specific programs, and 3 articles described suicide prevention programs. Training programs reviewed content about mental illness, practical skills, and included didactic and experiential teaching modalities. The programs led to improvements in knowledge, skills, and attitudes amongst officers. Prior mental health attitudes, knowledge, and work experience did not correlate with improvements following training. Officers were more receptive to program facilitators with correctional or lived mental health experience. Experiential teaching was preferred to didactic teaching. A decline in training improvements occurred several months after training.
ConclusionThere is limited but positive literature suggesting that structured training programs, particularly involving persons with lived experience and experiential components are beneficial. The decline in training improvements suggests need for ongoing education and systems change within correctional institutions to ensure sustainability of gains. In terms of limitations of this review, it is possible articles pertaining to correctional officer mental health training were not available on the databases searched or some programs may not be published. Studies were also limited in their outcome measurement, with no consistent tools, and no control groups. This review can guide the development, delivery, and contribute toward best practice guidelines for future inmate mental health training programs and studies.
Modeling With Limited Data: The Influence of Crop Rotation and Management on Weed Communities and Crop Yield Loss
- Stephen R. Canner, L. J. Wiles, Robert H. Erskine, Gregory S. McMaster, Gale H. Dunn, James C. Ascough II
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- Journal:
- Weed Science / Volume 57 / Issue 2 / April 2009
- Published online by Cambridge University Press:
- 20 January 2017, pp. 175-186
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Theory and models of crop yield loss from weed competition have led to decision models to help growers choose cost-effective weed management. These models are available for multiple-species weed communities in a single season of several crops. Growers also rely on crop rotation for weed control, yet theory and models of weed population dynamics have not led to similar tools for planning of crop rotations for cost-effective weed management. Obstacles have been the complexity of modeling the dynamics of multiple populations of weed species compared to a single species and lack of data. We developed a method to use limited, readily observed data to simulate population dynamics and crop yield loss of multiple-species weed communities in response to crop rotation, tillage system, and specific weed management tactics. Our method is based on the general theory of density dependence of plant productivity and extensive use of rectangular hyperbolic equations for describing crop yield loss as a function of weed density. Only two density-independent parameters are required for each species to represent differences in seed bank mortality, emergence, and maximum seed production. One equation is used to model crop yield loss and density-dependent weed seed production as a function of crop and weed density, relative time of weed and crop emergence, and differences among species in competitive ability. The model has been parameterized for six crops and 15 weeds, and limited evaluation indicates predictions are accurate enough to highlight potential weed problems and solutions when comparing alternative crop rotations for a field. The model has been incorporated into a decision support tool for whole-farm management so growers in the Central Great Plains of the United States can compare alternative crop rotations and how their choice influences farm income, herbicide use, and control of weeds in their fields.
Situating care in mainstream health economics: an ethical dilemma?
- JOHN B. DAVIS, ROBERT McMASTER
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- Journal:
- Journal of Institutional Economics / Volume 11 / Issue 4 / December 2015
- Published online by Cambridge University Press:
- 21 November 2014, pp. 749-767
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Standard health economics concentrates on the provision of care by medical professionals. Yet ‘care’ receives scant analysis; it is portrayed as a spillover effect or externality in the form of interdependent utility functions. In this context care can only be conceived as either acts of altruism or as social capital. Both conceptions are subject to considerable problems stemming from mainstream health economics’ reliance on a reductionist social model built around instrumental rationality and consequentialism. Subsequently, this implies a disregard for moral rules and duties and the compassionate aspects of behaviour. Care as an externality is a second-order concern relative to self-interested utility maximization, and is therefore crowded out by the parameters of the standard model. We outline an alternative relational approach to conceptualising care based on the social embeddedness of the individual that emphasises the ethical properties of care. The deontological dimension of care suggests that standard health economics is likely to undervalue the importance of care and caring in medicine.