A woman who witnessed suicide attempts and begged for counselling inside a Darwin prison has called for an increase in mental health services in correctional centres.

Key points: There have been five suicide attempts by female inmates in Darwin this year

There have been five suicide attempts by female inmates in Darwin this year A counsellor said there was a lack of specialist trauma-based mental health care

A counsellor said there was a lack of specialist trauma-based mental health care A former inmate said she received no support after witnessing a suicide attempt while in prison

By her own admission, Renae Bretherton has been "in and out of jail" for most of her life on drugs and weapons charges.

She said her latest sentence of 18 months inside Darwin Correctional Centre (DCC) was "hell on earth".

After struggling with drugs, self-harm and mental health issues, the 38-year-old woman known affectionately as "Rocket", said she demanded a specialist counsellor while incarcerated at DCC.

"To get that counsellor, it took me seeing the doctor a fair few times [over six months] and the doctor trying to force me onto anti-depressants and stuff I wasn't interested in taking," she said.

Ms Bretherton said she finally got a great counsellor who she clicked with. But after six months they moved on, and her hopes started to fade again.

The lowest point came when she had to call for guards to stop another female inmate trying to take their own life.

"After that incident, we received no counselling whatsoever," she said.

"I was rapidly deteriorating. Two weeks before getting out, I didn't even know if I was going to be walking out that gate

Female inmates often dealing with trauma

NT Correctional Services confirmed there have been five suicide attempts by female prisoners at the jail this year, most of these by the same person and some were while they were in a mental health ward at Darwin's hospital.

A female inmate attempted to take their life while they were in a mental health ward at Darwin's hospital. ( ABC News )

Joan Washington, a counsellor with Stand By: Support After Suicide, said the organisation started visiting at-risk women after these suicide attempts.

"It's not something we would normally do but given there was a lack of counselling services in there we made a decision to work with a couple of women there to support them, given their level of complex trauma," Ms Washington said.

Top End Health Service — which is responsible for mental health services inside the women's prison — said it had nurses and GPs trained in mental health care onsite at the prison.

They are also currently advertising for a full-time psychologist.

Ms Washington said this was not enough and that women in the prison needed specialist trauma-based counselling.

"We've met with about eight to 10 women at different points and they've all been begging for different types of services around counselling and particularly trauma counselling. None of which they can access," she said.

"If you want to people to stop re-offending, doubling down on things, triggering or traumatising them will not make them better, it'll make them worse."

Eileen Baldry, a professor of criminology at the University of NSW, said female prisoners generally struggle with higher rates of trauma than male prisoners and often don't get the support they need.

"This is and has been for a very long time an area that is very generally poorly handled," she said.

"Mental health services are highly problematic. There is a lot of use of medication, in part probably because there are just not the services and the intensive counselling services needed for women who have significant and deep trauma."

She said trauma was especially high in Aboriginal women, a group which is over-represented in the rising rates of women in Australian jails.

"You see women who have sexual trauma, come from domestic violence situations, being held in isolation for long periods of time because they might be a suicide risk," she said.

"But being held in those circumstances actually drives people into a worse mental health state."

Female prisoners struggle with higher rates of trauma than male prisoners and often don't get the support they need. ( Supplied )

Professor Baldry said women were more likely to be held in prison before being sentenced than men and those in this situation rarely got access to mental health services.

She said it was problematic that people who had a counsellor or psychiatrist through Medicare before they went into custody cannot access them over the phone.

Despite her concerns, Professor Baldry said the issue was more complex than blaming prisons for not giving adequate mental health care to prisoners.

"Prisons are not the place to support people with mental illness or other disabilities. Really what we should be working towards is working to keep these women out of prison," she said.

In a statement, NT Correctional Services said it was "fully focused on the care and safety of all inmates" and "works in close partnership with the Department of Health to manage the complex needs of prisoners".

Inmates are not able to access health services on Medicare once they are in prison.

After thinking she might not make it out alive, Ms Bretherton left prison a month ago.

She credits her survival to a program inside the prison called Women of Worth, as well as with support she received from Ms Washington and her mother.

"I've had enough of prison. I made a decision not that long back that I don't want to go back. I don't want to touch drugs again," Ms Bretherton said.

She is now in drug rehab in Central Australia and is determined to fight for the rights of those still in jail.

"Shouldn't we be giving the best opportunity to help ourselves while we're in the system so we come out a better version of the version that went in?" she said.