CHESTER and District Samaritans have recently partnered with HMP Berwyn in Wrexham for a scheme to help prisoners.

The aim is to teach inmates how to spot mental health issues, as well as train them to listen and how to help with problem’s that other people may be facing.

Speaking at a mental health event in Ty Pawb on Wednesday, February, 13, Janet Tyrrell, a volunteer for the Chester Samaritans says the scheme is important, as it encourages prisoners to find the confidence to talk about their issues.

“We’re training prisoners to listen to others because sometimes prisoners will talk to their fellow prisoners about issues that they may be experiencing, but they won’t talk to us all the time about it.

“It’s been very successful so far, it hasn’t been going very long but I feel it’s been a success up to this point.

“We we will listen to anybody who wants to talk to us while we are there, but the main aim is to train and support prisoners listening to others.”

Chester and District Samaritans have been willingly giving their time to help people in Chester, Wrexham, Ellesmere Port, Neston and Deeside for more than 50 years, every day of the year, and have now turned their attention to Wrexham’s prison in a bid to raise awareness of mental health for convicts.

Mrs. Tyrell went on to explain what the training programme entails and explains why it’s important to not forget about mental health in prisons.

“We have a very good training programme, it’s a months long training programme in listening techniques and all sorts of things they need to deal with when it comes to mental health.

“It’s not a quick fix through but people are quite confident afterwards, I think.

“Obviously, prisoners are where they are because of something that’s happened to them, some problem, or something they’ve done wrong, and they may not find it easy to talk to people about it.

“These people have likely had very difficult lives, I think not everybody who ends up in prison is necessarily a wicked person, it could just be somebody who has suffered problems throughout their childhood or during their life which may have led to crime, I don’t know.

“These people need to be helped, I hope they can be helped. They can’t just be forgotten.