Mental Health in the Chilean Incarcerated Population, a Screening Approach

• In Event: Area XII. Diversity and Inclusion - Mental Health Issues

Abstract

From both a social and epidemiological perspective, incarcerated individuals present various accumulated disadvantages in different areas, being one of them the deterioration in their mental health, linked to confinement and the negative effects of incarceration. However, since mental health evaluations at the intake phase are virtually non-existent for incarcerated populations in Chile, the diagnosis, monitoring, and intervention initiatives on mental health issues are very limited. A first step to make the topic of mental health more visible to public policy is to gather more evidence about it in prison settings. We analyzed –using a screening approach–the presence, suspicion, or absence of a psychopathology using the GHQ-12 instrument among a sample of 1,159 incarcerated individuals grouped in 20 prisons throughout Chile. Our main results show that that there would be about 22,3% of Chilean inmates with the presence of some psychopathology, plus an additional 51,8% with criteria for suspected psychopathology; we also found significant, bivariate relationships between mental health and gender, type of prison, and age so that incarcerated women, younger inmates, and those housed in public prisons reported more issues. We discuss the implications of our findings for the improvement of prisons in Chile and the US.

Authors

• Guillermo Sanhueza, Loyola University Chicago

• Liza Zúñiga, University of Chile

• Jessica Candia, Independent Researcher