Summary

The research has been commissioned from the research unit of the Järvenpää Social Hospital by the Criminal Sanctions Agency. In the research the activities and treatment programme of the contract ward of Helsinki prison are evaluated for the basis of their development work. The objects of evaluation are especially the resources of the ward, utilising of the theoretical frame of reference in the treatment programme, the recruitment of prisoners to the ward, utilising of cross-disciplinary work in the functions of the team and the effectiveness of the ward. The evaluation is based on the self-evaluation of the team (e.g. SWOT analysis and ITE evaluation), theme interviews of the ward's prisoners, participating observation and statistics and documents concerning the ward.

The team and the prisoners of the ward evaluated their own and the ward's activities openly, diversely and realistically. The research shows clearly how demanding and vulnerable intoxicant rehabilitation is in prison environment. The officers find it hard to concentrate besides their other duties on the development of the activity of one ward, and it is hard for the prisoners to get loose from the ties of the prison and the prison culture. The contract ward has, however, in prison a stable position and structure. Sufficient number of prisoners with intoxicant problems seek to the ward. The members of the ward team have versatile training, experience and professional know-how. On the other hand, from the point of view of intoxicant rehabilitation, the nature of the ward and the contents of the treatment programme have not yet been clearly structured ("profiled") and the resources of the ward do not for all parts fulfil the quality criteria of intoxicant services.

Exterior settings and professional skills to develop the ward towards cognitive community treatment exist but the preconditions of their effective utilisation have still been limited. The development work requires for instance a joint work guidance of the team and starting of training and strengthening of the resources of the ward so that the team has a possibility (time) to define a common target, a systematic monitoring and assessment of one's own work, building of a cross-disciplinary but unified way of work and having a more clear implementation of desired frames of reference (cognitive; community treatment) in the activities of the ward. This requires from the team commitment to long-term work and from the prison and the Criminal Sanctions Agency commitment to ensure sufficient preconditions of activity.

The report Kohti kognitiivista yhteisöhoitoa? Helsingin vankilan päihteettömän osaston arviointi- ja kehittämistutkimus