Gender,Psychiatric Symptomatology,Problem Behaviors and Mental Health Treatment in a Canadian Provincial Correctional Population: Disentangling the Associations between Care and Institutional Control

Abstract

Efforts to increase the provision of mental health care for prisoners have been met with criticism suggesting that mental health treatment in prison is likely to serve institutional rather than inmates’ interests. In this context, the present study seeks to explore the use of various forms of mental health treatment with mentally ill offenders as a function of diagnosis, problem behavior in the institution, and gender among a sample of 513 Canadian inmates. The data was obtained from a review of institutional files as well as face-to-face interviews with inmates. Associations between the main variables were examined using multivariate logit analysis. Results indicate that the provision of mental health care in Canadian provincial institutions is still minimal. Furthermore, women inmates are significantly more likely to receive mental health services compared with their male counterparts. Psychiatrists appear to have a particularly important role in managing conduct problems in the institution. Finally, the presence of dysphoria or social withdrawal in inmates is associated with an increased probability of being provided with individual or group therapy. The results suggest that factors other than psychiatric symptomatology, such as gender and institutional misconduct, may influence the provision of mental health care services in correctional settings.