Korobanova D1,2,3, Dean K2,3
1Western Sydney Local Health District, 2University of New South Wales, 3Justice Health and Forensic Mental Health Network
Biography:
Dr Korobanova is a senior leader in mental health, a clinical psychologist, and a researcher in the field of forensic and custodial mental health. Over the years, she has facilitated a number of statewide projects, as well as collaborated on large epidemiological studies focusing on the well-being of people in NSW custody.
Aboriginal people in the community present with a significantly higher prevalence of psychological distress than non-Aboriginal people. The rates of suicide, hospitalisation, emergency department attendance, and contact with public health services for mental disorders are two to three times higher in Aboriginal people in the general community. In the custodial environment however, previous studies observed very few differences in the prevalence of mental health disorders between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people.
The current study aimed to explore self-reported psychiatric history as well as current and lifetime symptoms of mental disorders in Aboriginal men and women in NSW custody.
The results demonstrated that Aboriginal people were less likely to have come into contact with a clinician for mental health, however were more likely to have been prescribed a psychiatric medication. There appeared to be no significant differences in the self-reported rates of psychiatric diagnoses apart from psychotic disorders with Aboriginal people being twice as likely to report prior diagnosis as non-Aboriginal people in custody. Similar trends were observed in self-reported symptoms of mental disorders. Among Aboriginal people, women were significantly more likely to report a variety of mental health concerns and prior contact with mental health services than Aboriginal men. Similar gender differences were observed within the non-Aboriginal group.
Possible explanations for the lack of significant differences in the custodial population include the potential reluctance of Aboriginal people to seek help from community and prison mental health services, as well as reduced likelihood to self-report current and lifetime symptoms of mental health. It is also possible that given the overrepresentation of Aboriginal people in custody, the survey sample could be more likely to represent the population than for the non-Aboriginal participants who may represent a more unwell proportion of the population.