What does an average working day look like for a community prison links worker? Our colleague Jason Campbell shares what his role involves and how varied and challenging the job is from one day to the next.
As a community prison links worker (CPL), my main role is to work with men and women in prison with the purpose of providing support upon release. Most of the referrals would come from education within the prisons, probation services, addiction counsellors, and relevant criminal justice services.
My clientele can vary, and some might need more support than others. Working with persons from prison can be complicated and complex depending on the person. As a CPL I must understand that these individuals have spent long periods of their lives in prison and in addiction and as a result become institutionalised and find life in society more challenging than prison itself. That doesn’t mean that they are happy going back to prison, however, unfortunately that sometimes seems to be the only solution for that person.
When an individual is released from prison with addiction issues, and has spent a long time there they may face a lot of barriers in their lives for example:
- Homelessness
- Lack of support
- Lack of finances
- Health issues
- Employment
- Access to services
- Lack of family support
- Emotional support
- Communication skills
- Lack of social skills
- Temptation to return to addiction or crime
- Pressure from peers to return to old behaviours
It is my job to provide the help and support needed to overcome these difficulties and challenges. On any given day working within the Irish Prison Service, most of my clients would have the above presenting issues.
My first course of action with any client as their key worker would be to reassure him or her that there is no judgement, but rather my role is to understand, actively listen and find out how I can help, build a rapport, and make them feel as comfortable as possible. I will then complete an initial assessment form on our first meeting to identify presenting issues and from this assessment we can move forward with creating a comprehensive care plan that the person can work towards upon release.
Working with a person with such complex issues involves inter-agency collaboration. As the designated case manager, it is my job to oversee the shared care plan, manage inter-agency communication, arrange regular reviews to monitor and assess the progression of the care plan and ensure all parties involved are carrying out their role. What does this mean? It can be very overwhelming for clients when there are too many people involved in providing support so, as the case manager I will coordinate and liaise with various agencies involved with the individual to be on the same page and work together in the interest of the service user. Through doing this I can identify any gaps or blocks which will hinder my client’s progression and make necessary changes. Some of my inter-agency work daily would involve coordinating with:
- GP’s
- Probation
- Stabilisation programs
- Residential detox programmes
- Drug-free therapeutic day programmes
- Aftercare
While not all cases require such a holistic approach, this is available when needed.
