Partners experience...

The project includes a partnership composed of public and private institutions working in mental health, geriatrics and in corrections. The strategic partnership brings together multi-agency and cross-sectorial agencies (a palliative care foundation, prison administrations, a private company specialized in prison staff training & innovation, a health sciences faculty, a university hospital, and the European representative of prisons and corrections) to develop new, innovative and integrated approaches to the field of adult education in prison and probation settings.

The first set of MenACE partners are the end-users, that is, the prison services which are interested in a modern, effective, and balanced personal and professional core. As most European prison administrations, they are under increasing pressure to improve their performance and contribute more actively to the rehabilitation of offenders, while confronted with the growing prison population ​rates and the challenges that the implementation of new programs brings to both staff and management positions in prison settings. Their role is also relevant for providing partners with information about staffs’ and inmates’ real needs and offering the context to practical experiences. Besides the Romanian, Portuguese and Belgian prison administrations as formal partners, Haukeland University Hospital will engage the Norwegian prison service. In specific, the Department of Forensic Psychiatry of Haukeland University Hospital has one section located within the correctional services which serves two prisons for adults and one for juveniles. The section collaborates with health care in the prison and correctional services.

The second group of MenACE partnership is the development partners: the health care providers and the prison experts. The Applicant – HOSPICE Casa Sperantei - has over 13 years’ experience in palliative care, providing specialist clinical services and educational programmes in the field. The BSAFE LAB and IPS have expertise in prison innovation and capacity building, while SPPPJ (please see www.spppj.com) - who will participate in this project as associate non-formal partner pairing with the BSAFE LAB - has expertise in the field of psychiatric and psychological study of offenders. Haukeland University Hospital will also contribute as a development partner due to its pivotal experience in prison mental health care.

Thirdly, MenACE has dissemination partners, offering knowledge exchange opportunities allowing to compare, acknowledge and adopt practices and innovation from a country to another. The dissemination and exploitation strategy will be led by the European Organisation of Prison and Correctional Services (EuroPris) which provides the opportunity to explore experiences, knowledge and practices in different fields and areas relevant for improving prison staff at European level and to answer identified common needs. EuroPris is responsible for disseminating and exploiting MenACE project’ results by providing networking opportunities with other prisons.