Dr Carey Marr1, Ms Minh Thu Nguyen1, Prof Kimberlie Dean1,2, Ms Fiona White1, Ms Soumya Somarajan1, Mr Lochlan Peters-Donohue1
1UNSW, Sydney, Australia, 2Justice Health & Forensic Mental Health Network, Sydney, Australia
Biography:
Carey is a Lecturer in the Discipline of Psychiatry and Mental Health at UNSW. In 2021, she completed her PhD at Maastricht University and the University of Portsmouth in legal psychology. Her research focuses on mental health in custodial and forensic settings and aims to improve the wellbeing of those in contact with the justice system.
Thu is a Senior Project Officer at UNSW. She received her Bachelor of Science in Psychology in 2017 and her Master of Social Work in 2020. She coordinates research work on a range of research projects undertaken by the Forensic Mental Health Research team.
The transition from custody to community is a critical time for individuals with mental illness, marked by high health service needs. In this study, we aimed to design and support the implementation of an updated model of care to improve the experience and associated outcomes of First Nations people with severe mental illness transitioning from custody to the community.
The presentation will provide an overview of how we engaged with stakeholders to develop, implement, and evaluate the updated service model for the community transition service to better support First Nations patients. We will discuss the development of the Moving Forward Action Plan which underpinned the Community Transitions Team (CTT) updated service model of care for supporting First Nations patients. Findings of our evaluation of the updated model of care will also be presented. This included findings from interviews with First Nations CTT patients in custody and community and analysis of the service routinely collected data to examine and compare outcomes between First Nations and non-First Nations people before and after the updated service model of care was implemented.
The overall findings from this project have the potential to inspire evidence-based approaches for improving services and outcomes for First Nations people with mental illness in prison. The outcome of the study can also inform decision-making around service delivery and policy directives and have the potential to provide insights that will inform the development of more effective transition models for First Nations patients transitioning from custody to community.