❓ Hon Peter Collier asks about mental health support for prison officers in WA, and the Minister provides details of available programs and EAP usage data for Corrective Services employees.
AnsweredQoN 629Legislative Council
QuestionView source ↗
PRISON OFFICERS — MENTAL HEALTH
629. Hon PETER COLLIER to the minister representing the
Minister for Corrective Services:
(1) What mental health support services and programs
exist for prison officers in Western Australia's prisons?
(2) Are figures kept of the number of prison officers
who access mental health support services and programs?
(3) If yes to (2), how many prison
officers accessed these services and programs in 2020, 2021 and 2022?
629. Hon PETER COLLIER to the minister representing the
Minister for Corrective Services:
(1) What mental health support services and programs
exist for prison officers in Western Australia's prisons?
(2) Are figures kept of the number of prison officers
who access mental health support services and programs?
(3) If yes to (2), how many prison
officers accessed these services and programs in 2020, 2021 and 2022?
AnswerView source ↗
I thank the honourable member for
some notice of the question. The following answer has been provided on behalf
of the Minister for Corrective Services.
(1) The department's strategic mental health
framework 2021–2024 underpins the range of internal and external initiatives, services and resources available to support the mental health and
wellbeing of prison officers. These include employee welfare services—psychologists
and employee welfare officers; the employee assistance program, which includes
free counselling sessions for employees and their family members; staff support,
a program where staff provide peer-to-peer support for their colleagues;
support following potentially traumatic events through the potentially
traumatic events response procedure; corporate health agreements, where all prison officers can access discounted health
insurance via the department's corporate health agreements with major health insurance providers Bupa, Medibank
and HBF; mental health resources available via the intranet; and an
education and awareness package, which all employees complete upon
commencement.
(2) Due to the
confidential nature of mental health services, the department is limited to
capturing EAP usage data by division—that is, all of corrective
services. Accordingly, the following table illustrates the number of corrective
services employees who accessed EAP services over the past four years.
(3) This information is in tabular form and I seek leave to
have it incorporated into Hansard .
[Leave
granted for the following material to be incorporated.]
Year
Employee Users
Sessions Used
2020
405
1213
2021
474
1522
2022
480
1494
some notice of the question. The following answer has been provided on behalf
of the Minister for Corrective Services.
(1) The department's strategic mental health
framework 2021–2024 underpins the range of internal and external initiatives, services and resources available to support the mental health and
wellbeing of prison officers. These include employee welfare services—psychologists
and employee welfare officers; the employee assistance program, which includes
free counselling sessions for employees and their family members; staff support,
a program where staff provide peer-to-peer support for their colleagues;
support following potentially traumatic events through the potentially
traumatic events response procedure; corporate health agreements, where all prison officers can access discounted health
insurance via the department's corporate health agreements with major health insurance providers Bupa, Medibank
and HBF; mental health resources available via the intranet; and an
education and awareness package, which all employees complete upon
commencement.
(2) Due to the
confidential nature of mental health services, the department is limited to
capturing EAP usage data by division—that is, all of corrective
services. Accordingly, the following table illustrates the number of corrective
services employees who accessed EAP services over the past four years.
(3) This information is in tabular form and I seek leave to
have it incorporated into Hansard .
[Leave
granted for the following material to be incorporated.]
Year
Employee Users
Sessions Used
2020
405
1213
2021
474
1522
2022
480
1494
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