Dr Carey Marr1, Ms Meghan Murie1,2
1University Of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia, 2Justice Health and Forensic Mental Health Network, Sydney, Australia
Biography:
Carey is a Lecturer in Forensic Mental Health at UNSW. In 2021, she completed her PhD in legal psychology at Maastricht University and the University of Portsmouth. Her current research focuses on mental health in custodial and forensic settings and aims to improve the mental health and wellbeing of those in contact with the justice system.
Meghan works in the Adolescent Forensic Mental Health team at Justice Health NSW and has a Conjoint appointment at UNSW. She studied psychology and criminology and is interested in the intersection of mental health and the justice system, with a particular focus on adolescents.
International research has found high rates of mental illness among people in prison. However, existing studies are often limited by their sample selection methodology, and many do not examine mental health at prison entry specifically. In this presentation, we present two studies examining mental health screening at entry to custody in NSW. The first examines a total population sample of 9568 adults entering public prisons over a 1-year period. The second examines a total population sample of 4,616 young people entering custody over a six-year period.
We describe differences in the screening method in these populations and present the prevalence of mental health variables collected during routine health screening upon prison entry. For adults, 62% of prison entrants reported a lifetime mental health condition and 23% reported a serious mental illness. Lifetime self-harm (14%) and suicide attempts (12%) were also high. Women had higher prevalence of most mental health diagnoses and of previous self-harm and suicidal ideation/behaviour than men. For young people, 36% of entrants reported at least one mental disorder, with ADHD being the most common mental health diagnosis (23%). There were also high rates of self-harm and suicidal ideation amongst the juvenile cohort (12%). Girls reported higher prevalence across several disorders, particularly mood and anxiety disorders.
This presentation provides insight into the scale of mental health need among people entering prison, particularly among women and girls. We will discuss strengths and limitations of the different screening approaches in these populations and highlight the implications of our findings.