A view of probation and mental health after the pandemic

The advent of the COVID-19 pandemic has seen the world change dramatically. For people in the Criminal Justice System (CJS), the pandemic has levied an even heavier toll. To date, the impact of the pandemic on the mental health of those within the CJS has been most acutely focused on people in prison. However, the impact of the pandemic on people on probation has carried similarly devastating costs to mental health. People on probation also have higher rates of suicide and suicidal ideation than in the general population. The implications of the pandemic and what it has meant for both service users and the probation staff who supervise them are therefore an area of vital concern. The mental health costs of the pandemic for Probation Service users have been immense. The impact of the pandemic has also been felt by service users residing in supported housing and approved premises. For probation staff the pandemic has shifted the boundaries of working, communicating and interacting with others. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved)

Putting a face to a name: Telephone contact as part of a blended approach to probation supervision

This article is about the experience of telephone supervision from the perspective of practitioners. It is set in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic, which changed and challenged the nature of probation supervision and required service users and supervisors to communicate remotely, using the telephone, rather than by meeting face-to-face. The article explores some of the impacts and consequences of telephone contact and examines the extent to which this approach has a part to play in future, post-pandemic, ways of working.The article draws on findings from a research project examining remote supervision practice during the pandemic. Fieldwork (comprising an online survey and a series of semi-structured interviews) was conducted between July and September 2020 in three divisions within an English community rehabilitation company. The article reinforces the importance of face-to-face work in probation practice but suggests that there is scope to retain some use of telephone supervision as part of a future blended practice model. Further thinking about telephone supervision might consider these three themes identified in the research: remote working limits the sensory dimension of supervision, relationships remain at the heart of practice, and good practice requires professional discretion.