Penitentiary Mental Health Care in Belgium

Abstract

(from the chapter) It may be clear that penitentiary forensic mental health care in Belgium is at a turning point. The recent law of 2005 confirms the legal right of detainees to health care of the same quality as health care in the community. Belgium has a well developed and democratic mental health care system and we can only hope that in the future mentally ill prisoners will finally also benefit from it. The implementation of this law is an ongoing process with the following basic principles as accepted guidelines for the current developments of mental health care in Belgian prisons: the equivalence of mental health care, the continuity of care and the professional independence of care providers. Another key issue concerns education and training of professionals in forensic psychiatry. While all agree that forensic psychiatry is an integral part of medicine and psychiatry, no Belgian medical school has a chair in forensic psychiatry. As a consequence Belgium lacks a centre of reference for education and research in this discipline. For example, in the Netherlands there are several chairs in forensic psychiatry, but only one of them is based in the faculty of medicine. All others are based in a faculty of law. Although education is not the focus of this chapter, the ultimate success of the ongoing developments depends on it. Without adequate education and research a medical discipline has no real future. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2014 APA, all rights reserved).