Penny Curtis
Mental Health Unit
• Scottish Government Response to the
Commission on Women Offenders
• Mental Health Strategy: 2012-2015
Commission on Women
Offenders
• Recommendation 7: Mental health
services and approaches should be
developed in such a way that facilitates
women with borderline personality
disorder to access them.
Commission on Women
Offenders
• Recommendation 8: Mental health
programmes and interventions for shortterm prisoners are designed so that they
can continue to be delivered in a seamless
way in the community.
Commission on Women
Offenders
• Recommendation 9: The Scottish
Government's mental health strategy must
place a greater focus on women offenders,
specifically the provision of services to
address trauma, self-harm and borderline
personality disorder.
Commission on Women
Offenders
• Recommendation 10: An urgent review of
the provision and resourcing of services
for women with borderline personality
disorder and post-traumatic stress
disorder (in relation to previous abuse and
neglect) should be carried out.
Commission on Women
Offenders
• Recommendation 11: Mental health
training for police, prison officers, criminal
justice social workers and third sector
must be widely available, with ongoing
supervision.
Mental Health Strategy
• Child and Adolescent Mental Health
• Rethinking How We Respond to Common
Mental Health Problems
• Community, Inpatient and Crisis Services
• Other Services and Populations
– Mental Health and Offending
Common Mental Health
Problems
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Faster Access to Psychological Therapies
Mental Health and Alcohol
Trauma
Distress
Mental Health Strategy
• Commitment 30: We will build on the work
underway at HMP Cornton Vale testing the
effectiveness of training prison staff in a
“mentalisation” approach to working with
women with borderline personality
disorder and women who have
experienced trauma. The pilot will be
extended in that prison and introduced in
HMP Edinburgh.
Mental Health Strategy
• Commitment 31: We will also work with
NHS Lothian to test an approach to
working with women with borderline
personality disorder in the community by
extending the Willow Project in Edinburgh.
We will use the learning from the test to
inform service development more widely
across Scotland.