Representatives of the Ministry of Justice, directors and deputy directors, as well as the security and medical staff of the penitentiary institutions were trained on the toolkits for screening and risk assessment of suicide and self-harm behaviour in penitentiary institutions in Armenia. The toolkits were developed within the Project in line with the Council of Europe standards.

Nine 2-day and two 1-day training sessions with 222 participants in total were organised. The trainings were preceded by the piloting of the toolkits in three selected penitentiary institutions in September 2021. The results of the piloting, introduction and usage of the toolkit, the involvement and role of the staff of different levels of the penitentiary institutions were among the main topics discussed during the workshops.

The participants agreed that the toolkits will enable the penitentiary staff to perform better the initial screening upon admission in a penitentiary institution in respect of the suicide and self-harm behavior in line with European standards.

The trainings were organised in March-June 2022 within the framework of the project “Enhancing health care and human rights protection in prisons in Armenia” implemented by the Council of Europe and financed by the Action Plan for Armenia 2019 -2022.