State of the Criminal Justice System Dashboard
Mental health services in federal corrections
| Collection source : | Correctional Service of Canada |
| What it is? : | This indicator represents the number and percentage of individuals under federal correctional supervision identified as having a mental health need on the Correctional Service of Canada's Mental Health Need Scale (MHNS) who received mental health services. The MHNS is completed by a mental health professional and is used to assess the degree of psychiatric symptomology of an offender and determine the appropriate level of care required. Those who score “Some” or higher on the MHNS are deemed to have a mental health need and are reflected in this indicator. Mental health treatments may include counseling, psychiatric clinics, suicide/self-injury interventions, activities of daily living/skills training and treatment planning contacts. |
| Why is it important? : | The legislative mandate for the Correctional Service of Canada to provide health services to individuals under federal correctional supervision comes from the Corrections and Conditional Release Act. The Corrections and Conditional Release Act indicates that Correctional Service of Canada is responsible for providing every inmate with essential health care and reasonable access to non-essential mental health care that will contribute to the inmate’s rehabilitation and successful reintegration in the community. An increase in this indicator could represent an improvement in the access and provision of mental health services to individuals with an identified mental health need, and also their willingness to receive services. |
| Direction of improvement : | An increase in this indicator could indicate an improvement in supports for rehabilitation and reintegration. |
| Geographic coverage : | Canada |
| Limitation : | For detailed notes, click on the export to spreadsheet function. |
| Direction : | The value decreased from the previous year and is not moving in the defined direction of improvement. |
| Resources : | Summary of Evaluation of CSC’s Health Services (csc-scc.gc.ca) |