The Health Park, in tune with Justice to improve the prison model

The Minister of Justice and Democratic Quality, Ramon Espadaler and Parcerisas, visited the Sant Joan de Déu Health Park today and held a working meeting with the Health Park management team. Accompanied by the Secretary of Penal Measures and Reintegration, Elena Perez, and the Director General of Community Sentencing and Juvenile Justice, Jesus of the Cacho, the minister met with the managing director of the SJD Health Park, the Dr. Sebastian Santaeugenia, the director of Economics and Finance PSSJD, Martha Garcia, the director of the Mental Health Network of the SJD Health Park, Antoni Serrano, and the Director of Nursing, Raquel Fabregat, among others.

At this meeting, the minister, accompanied by his team, was able to learn about the model of attention to mental health problems in penitentiary and juvenile justice centers as well as the proposal of the Health Park to move towards a model more harmonized with the model that Sant Joan de Déu applies to the community. During the visit, the minister took a short tour of the spaces of the Specialized Hospitalization Unit for People with Disabilities (UHEDI).

The Health Park model

The Sant Joan de Déu Health Park manages the care of people deprived of their liberty with mental health problems for more than twenty years in the CP Brians 1, CP Brians 2, CP Quatre Camins, CP Joves and CP Dones centers, as well as in the Juvenile Justice educational centers and care through the Individual Mental Health Monitoring Program in the open centers dependent on the General Directorate of Penitentiary Affairs.

This is a model of prison psychiatry based on reintegration through the creation of life projects in the community. This model, pioneer at the state level, addresses the mental health problems of inmates, not only by making use of hospitalization, but also by carrying outmore appropriate assistance in the outpatient setting in order to promote the care continuum with the mental health network. The objective is to move away from a depository and container-type healthcare model and promote comprehensive, individualized, proactive and interactive care for the person being cared for.

Agreement with Health

The councilor of Justice and Democratic Quality, Ramon Espadaler, and the Minister of Health, Olga Pané, signed, on October 30, a new coordination agreement between their departments to improve mental health care and the treatment of addictions for people in prisons and juvenile justice centers in Catalonia.

The Agreement continues the line of work initiated in 2017, when the first agreement was formalized to develop a comprehensive mental health and addiction care program in the field of penal enforcement. Since then, the collaboration between Health and Justice has allowed the community health model in the field of mental health and addiction care to be adapted to the specific needs of people deprived of their liberty.

Comprehensive and equitable healthcare

According to data from the Department of Health, inmates have a prevalence of mental disorders seven times higher than that of the population as a whole. Many of these cases are related to the abuse of substances such as cannabis, cocaine or heroin, and they are often chronic patients who require continuous, multidisciplinary care. This reality highlights the need for a comprehensive approach that goes beyond specific treatment and includes prevention, rehabilitation and monitoring in the open environment.

The new agreement aims to ensure that inmates receive a portfolio of healthcare services equivalent to that offered to the general population, recognizing their right to comprehensive assistance. In addition, it is proposed to expand mental health care beyond serious mental disorders, addressing the specific problems that affect the prison population and those in the field of juvenile justice.