Educational Needs of Staff to Prevent and Control the Use of Drugs and Psychedelics in Prison: A Qualitative Study

The current study aimed to identify the educational needs of prison staff in the field of drugs and psychedelics.

The research was applied-exploratory with a case study approach. The statistical sample was in 4 prisons in Tehran, including experts and heads of prisons (N=11) and the deputies and specialist (N=52) separated by job field that were selected purposefully and snowballed until theoretical saturation. The data were collected using a semi-structured interview and 4 focus group sessions.

26 educational needs for employees in the dimensions of attitude, knowledge, and skills and 4 educational needs for managers were obtained. Among the staff's needs were familiarity with psychoactive substances and their side effects, methods of discovery and embedding, facial skills to prevent addiction, self-control, behavior with prisoners, psychotherapy, and understanding of the harms of drug use. Managers' needs were familiarity with laws, addiction treatment, prevention skills and understanding of addiction as a disease.

Managers and staff shared the need for "methods of addiction prevention" and it is necessary to plan and design the training course for staff taking into account the identified knowledge, attitudinal, and skill needs.