Background and aims

The prevalence of serious mental illness is markedly higher among people in prison than in the wider community, and necessitates a commensurate investment in prison mental health services. Reliable and validated information regarding mental health service delivery in prisons is critically important for identifying how services are currently being delivered. This project involves the first ever national survey of mental health service provision for prisons in Australia.

The aims of this project are:

1. To identify and describe current approaches to the treatment of mentally ill people in custody and in transition to community.
2. To find relevant service providers responsible for delivering mental health services in prison.
3. To quantify the current mental health service delivery to custodial populations in Australia.
4. To develop and document a replicable process for quantifying PMHS in Australia.

Collaborators

Queensland Centre for Mental Health Research

Funders

NHMRC

Key papers

Clugston B, Perrin M, Davidson F, Heffernan E & Kinner SA (2018). Prison mental health services: A comparison of Australian jurisdictions. Brisbane: Queensland Centre for Mental Health Research. LINK

Key contacts

Chief investigator, Professor Stuart Kinner.