Health Education and Peer Support Project for Drug-Using Prisoners 2005-2008
The Probation Foundation operating in Helsinki started in May 2005 a project on harm reduction (HR) in four (4) project prisons in Southern Finland. The aim is to create a national educational HR model for various types of prisons in Finland. The co-operation partners of the project are the Criminal Sanctions Agency, the A-Clinic Foundation Health Education Centres for IV Drug Users, and other drug-user service organisations. The project is funded by the Finland's Slot Machine Association RAY.
The target group includes all prisoners who use or are at risk of using drugs intravenously. Special attention is paid to supporting marginalised users, women, young people and linguistic-cultural minorities and to empowering these people through training. The health and rehabilitation personnel, trained as trainers, inform, motivate and select the participants for the training groups. A separate training on drug use and HR practices in prisons is arranged for the security personnel.
The beneficiaries of the project are the various members of the prison personnel and the project steering group. During the project, the HR ideology should become part of the basic education of, e.g., prison officers and the further education all members of the personnel.
The goal of the project is to create HR-recommendations and a model for all prisons with the help of:- Action plan for prison units and education for personnel to include harm reduction practices in their daily routines
- Accredited operation model / training programme for prison personnel to organise HR-oriented health education for drug users utilising peer influence
- Manual for peer educators for running a harm reduction counselling and guidance programme amongst users promoting care services and for professionals working with convicted drug users after release
Needs assessments have been made amongst the personnel with the help of recorded pair interviews (23). Drug user interviews (14) have been conducted by the A-Clinic Foundation Centres for IV Drug Users and by the members of drug-user organisation Lumme. Pilot training groups (6) have taken place in three prisons. The operation model / training programme will be experimented in another prison in spring 2007.
At first, the training for the personnel will be organised by the project team and later on as part of the training provided by the Prison Personnel Training Centre and Laurea University of Applied Sciences. The training for prisoners using drugs will be organised by the health and rehabilitation personnel in each prison in co-operation with the local Health Education Centres for IV Drug Users.
Projects HR information has been identified as follows:- transmissions of HIV and hepatitis and other virus, bacteria and parasites can be restricted
- harmful effects and risks of drug use can be reduced by introducing alternative ways of use and safer sex practices
- people using drugs benefit from health information shared in groups, which enables empowerment and behaviour change
- peer influence and peer support are the most effective ways of empowerment and changing attitudes and behaviour amongst drug users from minority and/or marginalised groups.
More information and details on the project progress from project coordinator Liisa Uusitalo (social psychologist, nurse) tel. +358 50 33 9870.