Developing a new monitoring tool for self-harm risk in prisons (RAPPS project)

The overall aim is of the RAPPS project is to develop a risk assessment tool to examine a change in risk factors for self-harm in prisoners following closure of an Assessment, Care in Custody and Teamwork (ACCT) process with the intention of reducing rates of self-harm through treatment.

The programme of work has three interlinked studies:

• The development of a risk assessment tool to identify risk of repeat self-harm within 3 months following the closure of an ACCT.

• Assessing the acceptability of the new tool to relevant stakeholders (prisoners, clinicians and prison staff) based in three settings (one local/short-sentence, one long-stay, and one female prison) and examine barriers to implementation.

• A validation study, to prospectively test the tool’s predictive ability in a cohort of prisoners at the end of their ACCTs.

This programme is funded by the National Institute of Health Research.  The views expressed on this website are those of the authors, and not necessarily those of the funding body.