Providing Mental Health Support to Probation: A European Perspective

This short book provides a European-wide survey of mental health and probation. Drawing on a significant study, it explores the knowledge and attitudes to mental illness based on a sample of probation staff from 27 countries. It sets out the significance of mental health for probation staff and includes examples of good working practice, a pragmatic review of the literature and recommendations for further actions agreed by the Council of Europe. It seeks to improve the knowledge of probation staff about mental illness and outlines a future agenda for practice, service organisation and research.

Charlie Brooker has been a researcher and academic for over thirty years and he holds an honorary chair position at Royal Holloway, University of London, UK. Before retirement, his main interest was in psychosocial approaches for the care of people with serious mental health problems up until1995 when he was professor of mental health both in Sheffield and Manchester. Since then, he has almost exclusively researched aspects of the criminal justice system and mental health. He published a recent book with Routledge, with his colleague, Coral Sirdifield, in June, 2022, Probation, the Criminal Justice System and Mental Health.