The Prisoner Mental Health and Wellbeing Conference 2025

Overview

The intersection of healthcare, wellbeing and human rights within prisons is a vital topic of conversation. With prisons at breaking point in terms of capacity, they face disproportionately high rates of physical and mental health challenges, yet access to quality care and wellbeing provisions remains inconsistent and often inadequate. Addressing these issues is not just a matter of justice but also a healthcare imperative:

• 4% of prisoners had depression, as compared to 6-8% in the general population (Lancet Public Journal)
• 8% had PTSD and 3.7% had a psychotic disorder (also at least double the rate in the general population) (Lancet)
• Nearly one in four (23.8%) had an alcohol use disorder and 38.9 per cent had a drug use disorder on entry to prison (Lancet)
• In 2023, there were 93 suicides in prison custody in England and Wales. A rate of 10.8 suicides per 10,000 prison population, a rise on the 2022 figure of 9.4 (UK Parliament)

Join us at the 2025 Prisoner Mental Health and Wellbeing Conference to explore the most pressing challenges and solutions in supporting the mental health of prisoners. Hear from experts in keynotes addressing prison capacity pressures, suicide and self-harm prevention, substance misuse, and support for women in custody. Gain valuable insights from case studies on staff shortages and neurodiverse prisoners and deepen your understanding of traumatic brain injuries and their impact on mental health. Be part of the conversation shaping the future of prisoner healthcare and rehabilitation.

Why you Should Attend:

• Learn from leading professionals on prisoner health and wellbeing.
• Connect with policymakers, researchers, and frontline staff.
• Explore best practice approaches to mental health and rehabilitation in prisons
• Contribute to discussions on improving prison healthcare systems.
• Gain 8 hours of CPD points

Agenda

• 9.30am

  Registration

• 9.50am

  Chair’s Opening Remarks

• 10.00am

  Keynote: The Impact on Prison Capacity Pressure and the Delivery of Essential Services

  • Outlining the current government plans to reduce prison numbers and the impact this will have on accessibility/availability of mental health services for prisoners
  • Considering the role of forensic inpatient units to reduce overpopulation
  • Discussing social barriers prisoners have when accessing mental health services, such as double occupation of cells
  • Highlighting the impact of long waiting lists for healthcare services in prisons
  • Examining the impact of overcrowding in prisons on mental health

  Professor Seena Fazel, Professor of Forensic Psychiatry, University of Oxford (invited)
• 10.20am

  Keynote: Reducing the Risk of Self-Harm and Suicide in Prisons

  • Addressing why the rate of suicides and self-harm are increasing in prisons
  • Taking lessons from the Samaritans Listener Scheme to support suicidal prisoners
  • Educating prison staff on mental health and suicide prevention and equipping them to recognise warning signs, offer appropriate support, and create a safer environment for inmates
  • Changing prison cultures to more compassionate environments to ensure prisoners feel comfortable in being open about their mental health challenges

  Senior Representative, Samaritans (invited)

• 10.40am

  Questions and Answers

• 11.00am

  Comfort Break

• 11.15am

  Keynote: Supporting Women in Custody

  • Gendering peer-support schemes for women in prisons
  • Recognising the impact of abusive relationships and how these experiences contribute to self-harm and ensuring support schemes are sensitive to these factors
  • Developing support strategies that address the emotional distress caused by separation from children, helping women process and cope with the loss of their maternal role
  • Assessing the effectiveness of gender-specific peer support initiatives, using feedback from incarcerated women to refine and improve the program
• 11.35am

  Case Study: Addressing Staff Gaps in Prisons

  • Outlining the impact of staff burnout on their ability to support prisoners
  • Ensuring the presence of a Consultant Forensic Psychiatrist and a Consultant Clinical Psychologist, both of whom familiar with adult prisons and adult criminal justice mental health services, in prisons
  • Enhancing role for chaplains: Train chaplains to support both staff and prisoners in dealing with psychological trauma
  • Using group-based approaches like art or music therapy when one-on-one sessions aren’t possible
• 11.55am

  Questions and Answers

• 12.15pm

  Lunch Break

• 12.55pm

  Keynote: Substance Misuse in Prisoners

  • Working in partnership with external stakeholders to deliver recovery programmes to support prisoners struggling with drug or alcohol addictions
  • Supporting prisoners with drug recovery upon release to reduce the likelihood of reoffending
  • Developing a community team to help prisoners reconnect with society, family, friends and other support pillars upon release
  • Creating a drug recovery strategy in conjunction with tackling drug supply to keep prisoners safe from exposure to substance misuse
• 1.15pm

  Case Study: Supporting Neurodiverse Prisoners

  • Highlighting the prevalence of ADHD in prisoners and discussing how this impacts their experience in prisons
  • Ensuring staff have the relevant skills to empathetically support neurodiverse prisoners
  • Providing appropriate interventions, (behavioural therapies/medication) to help manage symptoms and improve functioning
  • Framing prisoner’s negative experiences in the context of neurodiversity to facilitate self-identity shifts and create more inclusive and supporting environments
  • Analysing links between neurodiversity, self-medication and substance abuse

  Representative from HM Inspectorate of Prisons (invited)

• 1.35pm

  Questions and Answers

• 2.05pm

  Breakout Networking: Addressing Mental Health Challenges in Prisons

  Use this opportunity to connect with colleagues and engage in meaningful discussions about the most pressing mental health challenges facing prisoners Consider the barriers to effective service delivery, including resource limitations, staff training needs, and systemic issues within the prison environment. Share insights, best practices, and potential solutions to improve mental health support and rehabilitation efforts for prisoners.

• 2.35pm

  Comfort Break

• 2.50pm

  Keynote: Expanding Healthcare Provisions and Support in Prisons

  • Considering the NHS’s role in commissioning support for prisoner mental health
  • Addressing the siloing of the workforce in prisons i.e. the separation between healthcare workers, charities support workers and prison staff
  • Developing a Comprehensive Health Assessment Tool for prisoners
  • Ensuring regular studies into the prevalence of mental illness in prisons and the support networks into availability of mental health services take place
• 3.10pm

  Case Study: Prisoners with Traumatic Brain Injuries and the Impact on Mental Health

  • Outlining current research into correlations between traumatic brain injuries, offending, rehabilitation and mental health
  • Analysing the prevalence of young offenders with traumatic brain injuries
  • Ensuring prisons have the tools to screen for brain injuries in
  • Improving awareness and education of prisoners and prison-staff of the correlation between head injury, offending and prisoners
• 3.30pm

  Questions and Answers

• 3.50pm

  Chair’s Closing Remarks

• 4.00pm

  Conference Close

Why you Should Attend?

• Learn from leading professionals on prisoner health and wellbeing.
• Connect with policymakers, researchers, and frontline staff.
• Explore best practice approaches to mental health and rehabilitation in prisons
• Contribute to discussions on improving prison healthcare systems.
• Gain 8 hours of CPD points

Who Should Attend?

Pricing Options

Sponsorship

Raise your Profile, Showcase Your Solutions, Generate New Business

If your products, services, and solutions can support our audiences in their roles, and you want to make connections and generate new business with key stakeholders, decision makers, and influencers, then please contact us HERE

IMPORTANT: There are only a small number of sponsorship opportunities available to ensure maximum exposure and ROI – contact us today to secure your place.

Virtual vs F2F

Whilst F2F provide better options for networking, there are many distinct advantages of sponsoring our online conferences including:

• Wider geographical reach of delegates and a different audience who prefer online to f2f
• Lower sponsorship package costs
• No travel/accommodation
• Less time out of the office
• No stand materials required (lower costs)
• 1 of only 2 sponsors involved – less competition on the day
• Prime speaking slot in the morning of the conference including Q&A – less distractions and easier for delegates to hear/absorb information
• Receive all delegate data after the conference to follow-up directly with those who attend and don’t attend (small % but still key stakeholders)
• Ongoing exposure via OnDemand access (coming soon)

To find out more and discuss your specific objectives, please contact us below: