A Case Study of
Lifeline’s Prisons
services in
HMP YOI Feltham and
Isis
Lifeline and ILLY Systems: Working
Together to Successfully Deliver Substance
Misuse Treatment in Prisons
ILLY Systems are delighted to announce our partnership with Lifeline, supporting the
delivery of their substance misuse services in HMP YOI Feltham and HMP YOI Isis.
Recovery Focused Treatment Services
Education
& Training
Structured
Treatment
Counselling
Medical
Group Work
Referral to local Providers
The 2013/2014 Annual
Report by Her Majesty’s
Chief Inspector of Prisons
for England and Wales
found 7% of prisoners said
they had developed a
problem with illegal drugs
whilst in prison.
The Problem of Drugs in Prisons
In November 2014, Lifeline implemented LINKS CarePath as the single system to
support their substance misuse services in HMP YOI Feltham and HMP YOI Isis. Lifeline
is a national substance misuse charity, with ‘reducing harm, promoting recovery,
challenging inequalities’ at the forefront of their mission to improve lives. Lifeline first
established its Prisons Directorate in the 1990’s, and now provides substance misuse
treatment services in over 20 prisons across England, Scotland and Wales.
According to The Centre For Social Justice, ‘Prisons in England and Wales have a
serious drug problem’; 29% of prisoners admit to having a drug problem upon their arrival
to prison, while 41% report committing offences in order to fund substance misuse.
Lifeline take pride in delivering flexible, tailored interventions to service users and also
offer support to the families of individuals affected by substance misuse.
Adopting an integrated treatment approach, Lifeline works closely with both criminal
justice partners and community service providers to contribute to a wider, holistic
rehabilitation pathway including full and sustained recovery from problematic substance
use. This approach marks the charity as innovators; more than 43,000 substitute opiate
prescriptions were handed out in prisons last year, and so it is more vital now than ever
to promote a full recovery from substance misuse.
continued
“It is vital the service
integrates with teams
contributing to a wider
rehabilitation journey within
a prison environment, for
example those supporting
social behaviour
development or relationship
management. However, it is
equally important that
Lifeline also integrates with
service providers within a
community setting, to ensure
a smooth transition and
continued support both
during and following
release.”
Charlotte Talbot,
Senior Business
Development Manager,
www.lifeline.org.uk
The widespread scale of drug misuse within prisons increases the importance of having
clear visibility of both the profile of the treatment population and the services enabling
recovery, which makes the storage and consent of client information vital. Due to difficulties
connecting to prisons networks and strict control processes, many prisons still operate a
paper-based system to manage the delivery of substance misuse treatment. The method
increases the administrative burden on key workers, causes a difficulty in fulfilling reporting
requirements and creates a lack of visibility of client information and service activity.
The New Approach
To overcome these challenges, Lifeline implemented LINKS CarePath to support their
HMP YOI Feltham and HMP Isis services. This was possible as LINKS CarePath is the
only electronic case management and reporting system specifically supporting substance
misuse treatment that is also NDTMS in Prisons compliant and accessible on the prisons
networks.
Feedback from Lifeline has emphasised a range of benefits of electronically recording the
rehabilitation of service users, including having more time with service users due to the
time efficiencies associated with reduced admin. Equally, it has been reported that there is
a greater accessibility of client data and a greater ease of reporting associated with the
paperless system.
The substance misuse service at HMP YOI Feltham was newly established by Lifeline in
October 2014, and the implementation of both the service and LINKS CarePath developed
in parallel. ILLY Systems and Lifeline worked closely together throughout the project to ensure
the smooth implementation of the system progressed in line with a mutually agreed project plan.
At HMP YOI Isis the DET tool had been previously used to complete DAMS uploads, and
multiple systems were in place to manage data handling and recording.
The benefits of LINKS CarePath in Prisons
Single Client Record: Lifeline adopts a client-centric approach to substance misuse treatment,
and as such it is important that systems users are granted visibility of a single record, with userroles defining appropriate access for each system user.
Increased Service Capacity: LINKS CarePath has been proven to significantly cut down
on the time spent completing administration tasks, meaning more of a keyworkers day can
be assigned to interactions with their clients. Client information is available both quickly and
securely, at the click of a button
Increased Service Visibility: Vital service statistics, including the number of clients within
each keyworker’s current caseload, the number of incoming referrals and the number of clients
with no open modalities are available at the click of a button using the Team Leader Dashboard
feature, and enable a high-level service overview.
If you have any further
questions regarding any of the
information covered in this case
study or on our system LINKS
CarePath, please contact us
on:
T. 020 7749 2222
[email protected]
www.links-carepath.co.uk
Community Integration: The system produces auto-generated alerts to remind key
workers prior to expected release dates, which ensures a through the gate approach when
community teams also have access.
The Future of Lifeline in Prisons
Both Lifeline and ILLY are dedicated to further developing and expanding their work within
prisons over the course of the next year. Key themes for Lifeline in the upcoming months
include placing a particular emphasis on developing peer support programmes, while also
addressing the emergence of current issues such as the challenges posed by new
psychoactive substances.