NCJ Number
214349
Journal
Journal of Offender Rehabilitation Volume: 42 Issue: 2 Dated: 2005 Pages: 1-24
Date Published
2005
Length
24 pages
Annotation
This study explored the process of seeking psychological help in a New Zealand prison, focusing in particular on factors impacting help seeking behavior by inmates experiencing suicidal feelings.
Abstract
Results revealed that the male inmates were more likely to seek help for personal-emotional problems than they were for suicidal intentions. In fact, suicidal feelings were negatively related to seeking psychological help among inmates. Barriers to psychological help seeking were identified as fear of negative reactions from other inmates and staff, lack of trust in prison psychologists, and aversive prison policies and procedures for managing suicidal inmates. Recommendations for improving psychological help seeking among inmates are offered and include reforms to the organizational response to suicidal inmates, which should emphasize appropriate care and monitoring in a nonrestrictive manner. Participants were 52 male inmates housed in a small prison in Wellington, New Zealand. Participants completed both personal interviews and questionnaires that focused on assessing their intentions to seek psychological help, their prior help seeking behavior, their general attitudes toward seeking psychological help, and their degree of psychological distress and suicidal ideation. Data were analyzed both qualitatively, by grouping interview responses by category, and quantitatively through the calculation of descriptive statistics. Future research should adopt a longitudinal methodology in order to more closely examine the relationship between inmate attitudes and behavior. Tables, references