Mapping the scope and character of prison mental health services in Australia: a national benchmarking project

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  Professor Stuart Kinner

  s.kinner@unimelb.edu.au

Project Details

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 to:

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

Researchers

Stuart Kinner

Bobbie Clugston

Michelle Perrin

Fiona Davidson

Collaborators

Queensland Centre for Mental Health Research

Funding

NHMRC

Research Publications

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. Full text