Dr Kat Snow leads publication on impact of dual diagnosis on healthcare costs after release from prison

Justice Health Unit researchers, led by former team member Dr Kat Snow, have recently published the paper Impact of dual diagnosis on healthcare and criminal justice costs after release from Queensland prisons: a prospective cohort study in the Australian Journal of Primary Health.

The study found that people released from prison incur high healthcare costs, primarily due to high rates of engagement with emergency health services and hospital admissions.

Other findings were that comorbid mental illness and substance use disorders are associated with high health and criminal justice costs among people recently released from prison.

Given the findings published in this article, it follows that the provision of high-quality, targeted transitional might be cost-effective for government as well as improving the health of this under-served population.

The article was co-authored by Dr Jesse Young and Prof Stuart Kinner of the Justice Health Unit, A/Prof Dennis Petrie of Monash University, Prof David Preen of the University of Western Australia and Dr Ed Heffernan, Director, Queensland Forensic Mental Health Service. It is available here.

Congratulations to all authors on the publication of this significant new research!