Their history is not their destiny
An inspirational nursing session at Congress gave delegates a unique insight into the impact specialist mental health care has on the lives of vulnerable people in criminal justice settings. John Stone, a reformed service user and client advocate, described in touching detail how one nurse helped him turn his life around.
“After being released from prison, I fell back into a cycle of substance misuse and criminal behaviour,” he said. “I think I was days away from the end when I got rearrested. At court, a psychiatric nurse approached me. He was a shining light in a very dark place. Nobody had ever shown me that level of kindness and compassion before. Things started to change. I believe that nurse saved my life.”
The session, hosted by Nursing Times Editor Jenni Middleton, also provided members an opportunity to see a new film highlighting the work of Jo Tomlinson, an RCN member whose innovative anxiety management programme has given hope to inmates at Stafford prison.
In the film, Steve, a service user who has been in 63 prisons over 30 years, said Jo’s course is the only one of many that actually made a difference: “For the first time somebody asked how I was doing. I got to know myself again.”
Jo, who began her career working in child and adolescent mental health services, started working in Stafford and set up the programme after recognising that inmates’ aggression and tendency towards self harm was linked to anxiety formed in childhood.
“The programme takes men back to the beginning to help them understand their behaviour and start using modification techniques,” she said. “They develop a much healthier sense of self esteem so they can start rebuilding their lives. The course doesn’t just give a future to the men I work with. It gives a future to their families as well.”
Sadly, not all prisons focus such attention on the mental and physical health of their service users. “I never came across anything like what Jo is doing when I was inside,” said John. “Access to primary health care can also be really difficult. I developed an abscess in my mouth but there was a six month wait to see the dentist. Every morning I would have to drain the abscess myself. My survival instinct kicked in. By the time I got treated, half the inside of my jaw had been eroded.”
Annie Norman, the RCN’s adviser for nursing in criminal justice settings, was also part of the session. “Our motto in prison nursing is ‘their history is not their destiny’. People do things in their lives,” she said. “Anyone can make a mistake and any one of you here could find yourself in prison. Poor health care should not be part of the punishment.”
