On 10-11 May 2023, a two-day workshop was held with the Deputy Public Defender and representatives of the Public Defender’s Office (PDO), including the National Preventive Mechanism (NPM) Department and the Special Preventive Group. The event discussed the newly developed Concise Tools for PDO/NPM Monitoring of Mental Healthcare in penitentiary institutions and the Kutiri Psychiatric Hospital (with a focus on the forensic psychiatric unit) in the Republic of Georgia.

Over 20 participants of the workshop discussed the challenges of inspecting penitentiary mental healthcare services. They also improved understanding of mental disorder and its different types, the importance of psychosocial treatments, legal procedures and safeguards regarding a patient’s informed consent, dealing with staff who are unwilling to cooperate, various techniques for safe and effective interviewing of detainees, etc.

As a result, the participants were better prepared to apply the new Monitoring Tools in practice, having further improved their knowledge regarding mental disorders. The new tools will enhance NPM’s efficiency and will assist them in effectively accomplishing their tasks when inspecting prisons and the national forensic psychiatric unit, preventing ill-treatment and facilitating proper care of detainees.

This workshop was conducted under the auspices of the Council of Europe project “Enhancing Healthcare Provision in Georgia’s Penitentiary System”, which is a part of the Council of Europe Action Plan for Georgia (2020-2023).