Teresa Brasio-McLaughlin

Working Title of PhD: People with mental health conditions’ experiences of mental healthcare provision within the Scottish Prison Service

Year commenced PhD study: 2021

Institution/Organisation: University of Glasgow

Funding Source (if any): CoSS PhD Scholarship

Full or part-time: Full-Time

PhD Supervisors: Dr Marguerite Schinkel, Dr Caitlin Gormley and Professor Fergus McNeill

Synopsis of PhD

Unprecedented numbers of people with mental health conditions are now incarcerated and incidents of self-harm and suicide are increasing alongside rates of imprisonment. Prison environment and its overall conditions can have a significant detrimental effect on this already vulnerable group. However, while prison is not the most appropriate environment for people with mental health conditions, very little direction has been taken from the personal experiences of these group of people and how best to support them within carceral settings. Most prison research focuses on the general prison population, and most studies about people with mental health conditions in prison are conducted by clinicians and therefore from a medical perspective.

My project will use a qualitative approach based on a constructivist grounded theory methodology combined with creative methods of research to explore people’s experiences of mental health conditions in the context of their imprisonment and how best to support them navigating these experiences. The research will contribute to the currently limited knowledge of experiences of the convergence of imprisonment and mental health problems while giving voice to a group of people who are often dismissed both as prisoners and as people with mental health conditions.