newsTracker
By Tracker, July 25, 2012
QUEENSLAND: Ensuring prisoners have a connection to community and culture is an important step towards reducing the staggering mental health burden afflicting Indigenous people in prison.
That’s one of the conclusions drawn from a new study that has found the majority of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Queenslanders currently in jail suffer from mental illness.
The study was conducted by Queensland Forensic Mental Health Services and is one of the first to survey the prevalence of mental health disorders amongst Indigenous prisoners in the state.
It found 72.8 percent of men and 86.1 percent of women surveyed suffered from at least one mental health disorder.
51 percent of women and 20 percent of men suffered from anxiety disorders; 29 percent of women and 11 percent of men suffered from depressive disorders; 23 percent of women and 8 percent of men had psychotic disorders; and 69 percent of women and 66 percent of men suffered from a substance abuse disorder.
The most common anxiety disorder amongst both men and women was post-traumatic stress disorder.
QFMHS director Dr Edward Heffernan said the results were not surprising, but still distressing.
“The prevalence of mental illness amongst prisoners in general, even the non-Indigenous population, we knew was very high compared to the rest of the community, and we knew that it was very likely the same story for Indigenous people,” Dr Heffernan told Tracker.
“It’s certainly something you didn’t hope to find, so even though it wasn’t surprising, it was very distressing.”
The study found the high rates of psychotic disorders were particularly concerning given it is associated “with significant morbidity and increased risk of re-incarceration”.
Dr Heffernan said the study was valuable because it will help identify the next steps policy makers must take to help reduce mental illness in the state’s prisons.
“Kimina (Andersen from QFMHS) and I were both working in custody around mental health and we came together with the same concern, that we needed to improve mental health services for Indigenous people in custody.
“We said, ‘how do we do that?’ and we had a lot of ideas, but when we looked at the literature we found there wasn’t any good data about mental illness, and the nature and extent of mental illness amongst Indigenous people.
“That first thing we had to do was find out the answer to those questions so we could identify the areas we need to explore further, what areas we need to target for health service delivery.”
Dr Heffernan says that the study had uncovered several areas that warrant further investigation.
“The first finding was there is a significant need for mental health services for Indigenous people,” Dr Heffernan said.
“The second is we’re not talking about moderate problems. We are talking significant mental disorders, so there really has to be sophisticated mental health services.
“The third point was that some particular types of mental health problems are high – like PTSD and psychosis.
“We need to explore what is needed and how we better meet that need. The other things we found was that we needed to have culturally capable services.
“Essentially people weren’t accessing standard health services.
“The thing we found was people needed to have services to help them reconnect with community. It wasn’t just enough to provide people services in custody, it needed to keep going to connect to the community.”
Dr Heffernan says there was a positive aspect to the findings.
“What we identified was a great deal of strength. There were strong findings to support people’s cultural resilience. Through the community consultation we could see the strength within the community and the desire within the community to help their loved ones in custody.
“That was the other key area we worked on – not only how do you address the problems, but also, how do you enhance those strengths?”
Kimina Andersen an Aboriginal woman who co-authored the study alongside Dr Heffernan, says the next step was also about figuring out how Aboriginal people work in partnership with each other.
“One of the things I’m trying to focus on is working directly with community agencies, providing support for consumers of our services.
“We want to take that approach, to be holistic and work in partnership with the community controlled sector, which Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are more likely to access.”
Ms Andersen said it was premature to judge whether the Newman government would take on board any of the concerns.
“We are certainly hopeful Indigenous health issues and certainly mental health will be at the forefront of thinking in the future. Our role is to get some attention on those issues.”
Awareness group beyondblue’s CEO Kate Carnell responded to the study by calling on an ‘early intervention’ approach to help those with mental illness.
“We believe that an early intervention approach is essential,” Ms Carnell said in a statement.
“Many of the mental health issues that lead to incarceration need to be addressed during the formative years.
“As a result, many of the programs we are already funding for young Indigenous people are designed to build resilience and improve self esteem”
• The survey’s results were published in the Medical Journal of Australia.
