The Guyana Prison Service continues to equip its staff to handle various issues arising within the correctional system. Welfare Officer Dawn Sumner London noted, however, that mental illness continues to be one of the major challenges facing the rehabilitation of criminal offenders.
She was among a female panel on the national television’s NCN Prison in Focus programme, having completed advanced academic studies to further their careers within the country’s correctional establishment.
London, who spent 10 years in the system’s medical department and is now stationed within the Prison Service’s Welfare and Corrections Department, recently completed her Master’s in Business Administration and Health Care Management through the Guyana Online Academy of Learning (GOAL).
She said that while mental health remains an area of concern for her department, she intends to build on the health care services provided through the use of her recent achievement.
“The greatest challenge that we have in our welfare capacity is dealing with persons with mental illness,” London asserted. She said that “within Guyana, mental illness is on the rise, and the same within the prison system. We have several persons with mental illness and it is really challenging to deal with persons on a daily basis. As for me, I try my utmost, along with the other welfare officers, to provide the necessary care needed in terms of treatment, family connections and so on within the prison system.”
Achieving the academic upgrade has significantly bolstered the way the welfare officer views not just the provision of her medical service to prisoners, but also extended her understanding of the management of people and the prison service as an organisation.
London said that over the years she has worked in the medical department and had always wanted to learn more about the managerial aspect, since she had viewed things from a clinical perspective.
“I wanted to know about management and how best we could work within the medical department as well as the welfare department to provide holistic healthcare for our inmates within the correctional institution.”
London said that she saw her studies as necessary to advance the care provided to the nation’s inmates. She insisted that the additional knowledge acquired will prove useful in aiding criminal offenders in their rehabilitation process.
