Louise Southalan
LLB MIntDev MSc GAICD Churchill Fellow
Louise Southalan is an honorary fellow in the Justice Health Unit. She is involved in a range of national and international projects within the Unit to strengthen the evidence base and promote evidence-based decision making on health issues in prison and detention settings.
She works in Wungening Aboriginal Corporation’s Research, Evaluation and Engagement unit in Perth. She is also a board member of Mental Health Matters 2 Ltd, which works to embed Lived Experience expertise of justice/mental health/AOD issues at all levels of policy, operations and research. She is also steering committee member of WEPHREN, the Worldwide Prison Health Research and Engagement Network
Her past roles include:
- Establishing the Mallee Rehabilitation Centre therapeutic community within Casuarina Prison in Western Australia, for the WA Department of Justice
- Monitoring conditions in immigration detention centres in Australia and advocating on behalf of people in detention, for Australian Red Cross,
- In the Western Australian Mental Health Commission, developing new mental health legislation, commission forensic mental health services, and developing justice mental health policy
- As technical adviser to the WHO Health in Prison Program
- As board member of HepatitisWA
- As a criminal lawyer representing young people in detention.
She is a Churchill Fellow, and completed her report in 2020 on strategies for national agencies to improve state prison mental health systems and services. The report is available here. She holds a law degree and masters degrees in International Development and in Mental Health Policy and Services.