With support from the European Union and the Council of Europe, the Albanian Prison Service has rolled out an Initial Screening for prisoners with mental health disorders as a health care priority from day one of their admission.

The new approach, launched in March 2026, with a capacity-building activity held in Tirana for general prison’s doctors and psychologists from four prisons and two remand facilities, uses eight simple questions, to flag potential mental health concerns as soon as inmates arrive.

On 13 June 2026, a Council of Europe expert and representatives of the Directorate General of Prisons conducted an evaluation, which was focused on two dimensions: capturing the experience of the general practitioner in conducting the screening for all new commers and the feedback provided by the prisoners on this new practice. The results of the evaluation confirmed that a developed methodology helps with early identification and a more systematic referral. Since in both remand facilities there is no resident psychiatrist, while a meaningful number of prisoners screened positive, the visit of the psychiatrist from the prison was requested to follow up with a more in-depth assessment.  

The evaluation results confirmed that the methodology was easily applicable and could be rolled out by the Albanian prison service. Based on the feedback from inmates who had undergone the screening, an amendment to the questionnaire was proposed. While the targeted aim was to screen at least 15 new arrivals monthly, doctors managed between 55 and 67 screenings per month. This result shows the commitment of several prison facilities, the feasibility of the methodology and confirms that early detection translates into better referrals and treatment service for prisoners with mental health disorders.

The activity was conducted in the framework of the joint European Union and Council of Europe programme Horizontal Facility for the Western Balkans and Türkiye, and its action on Enhancing the protection of Human Rights of prisoners in Albania.