256. Digital mental health education on reducing the recidivism risk of prisoners in reverse connection

Abstract Background The term "reverse connection personnel" refers to individuals who have been released from prison and reintegrated into society. Personnel engaged in the reverse connection of criminal execution may encounter problems such as employment difficulties, social discrimination and mental health issues in the process of adapting to social life. Digital mental health education, as an emerging educational approach, provides mental health knowledge and skills through online platforms, which helps enhance the self-management and adaptability of these individuals and may thereby reduce the risk of recidivism. This study aims to explore the impact of digital mental health education on reducing the recidivism risk of personnel in the reverse transition between administrative and criminal penalties, with the expectation of providing a certain theoretical basis for mental health counseling and education for such personnel. Methods A total of 100 individuals about to be released from prison were selected as the research subjects and randomly divided into an experimental group and a control group, with 50 people in each group. The experimental group received digital mental health education for six months, including online courses, interactive discussions and personalized counseling. The control group did not receive any form of mental health education. The study evaluated the mental health status and recidivism risk of the two groups of people before and after the intervention. Results The experimental results are shown in Table 1. As shown in Table 1, the mental health score of the experimental group significantly increased from 50.18 ± 10.32 before the intervention to 64.28 ± 8.69 (p<.01), and the risk of recidivism also significantly decreased from 29.14% to 14.98% (p<.05). In contrast, the mental health score of the control group only slightly increased from 51.21 ± 9.84 to 54.82 ± 10.21 (p>.05), and the recidivism risk decreased from 24.89% to 19.22% (p>.05). These changes were not statistically significant. The above results indicate that digital mental health education can effectively enhance the mental health level of personnel involved in the reverse transition between administrative and criminal law enforcement, and significantly reduce the risk of recidivism. Discussion The research results show that digital mental health education can effectively improve the mental health status of personnel involved in the reverse transition between criminal execution and punishment, and reduce their risk of reoffending. This might be because digital mental health education offers a convenient and flexible learning platform, enabling prisoners to start learning how to manage their emotions and behaviors, as well as how to deal with challenges in social life, before they are released from prison. Future research can further explore the long-term effects of digital mental health education and how to combine it with other social support services to more effectively reduce the risk of recidivism. Funding No. 202008155037.