ACCT Process
Definition
Assessment, Care in Custody and Teamwork; the England and Wales Prison and Probation Service framework for identifying and managing prisoners at risk of suicide and self-harm, requiring an individual care plan and multidisciplinary review.
- Meaning
- Assessment, Care in Custody and Teamwork
- Jurisdiction
- England and Wales Prison and Probation Service
- Purpose
- Manage prisoners at risk of suicide or self-harm
- Requirement
- Individual care plan, multidisciplinary review
Common questions
Who can initiate an ACCT process for a prisoner?+
Any member of prison staff who identifies concerns about a prisoner's risk of suicide or self-harm can open an ACCT document, not only healthcare staff.
What happens once an ACCT document is opened?+
The prisoner receives an initial assessment, a case manager is assigned, and a multidisciplinary team develops and regularly reviews a care plan tailored to the identified risks.
Is this exact process used outside England and Wales?+
The specific ACCT framework is not, though comparable structured suicide and self-harm risk management processes exist under different names in other custodial systems.
Related terms
- BNSS 2023 § 367
- Provision of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita 2023 that governs proceedings when the accused appears to be of unsound mind and incapable...
- Estelle V. Gamble (1976)
- US Supreme Court decision holding that deliberate indifference to a prisoner's serious medical need constitutes cruel and unusual punishment under the Eighth...
- Mandela Rules
- United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners, adopted by the General Assembly in 2015; Rules 24-35 address health care...
- Mental Healthcare Act 2017 § 103
- Provision of India's Mental Healthcare Act 2017 establishing the rights of persons with mental illness who are in prison or other detention...
- MHA 1983 § 47
- UK Mental Health Act 1983 provision allowing the Secretary of State for Justice to transfer a sentenced prisoner to a psychiatric hospital...
- MHA 1983 § 48
- UK Mental Health Act 1983 provision equivalent to § 47 but applying to unsentenced (remand) prisoners; case law requires more prompt decision-making...
- Sell V. United States (2003)
- US Supreme Court case establishing the four-part test for when a court may authorise involuntary medication of a defendant for the purpose...