Reducing drug-related harms and improving mental health among people released from incarceration: a case for continuity of care

Description

Despite an urgent call to action by the World Health Organization over a decade ago, mental illness and substance use disorders remain highly prevalent among people in prison, and this prevalence is increasing rapidly in some jurisdictions. Although improving the health of people with mental disorders who experience incarceration is increasingly recognised as a key component of public health, substantial gaps in evidence remain and hinder the capacity of community-based mental healthcare and alcohol and other drug service providers to develop targeted, evidence-informed responses to the health needs of people released from prison. Therefore, true ‘throughcare’ is at best aspirational in most jurisdictions and contact with the criminal justice system remains a public health opportunity missed. This seminar will present findings on service use patterns and health outcomes for people with mental health and substance use disorders released from prison generated from several of the largest cohort studies to link routinely collected administrative health and justice data, globally. Implications for policy and practice will be discussed.

Dr Jesse Young is a NHMRC Emerging Leadership Fellow in the Justice Health Unit at The University of Melbourne specialising in psychiatric epidemiology with leading expertise in data linkage methodology. He holds Adjunct positions at the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute, the School of Population and Global Health at the University of Western Australia, and the National Drug Research Institute at Curtin University. He is a member of the Australian Institute for Health and Welfare’s National Prisoner Health Information Committee and Technical Expert Group. Since 2014, Dr Young has authored a scientific book chapter and 45 peer-reviewed publications; led reports commissioned by state and national government departments; and discussed his research on national TV and radio in Australia and internationally. His research has been cited in and informed international clinical guidelines for the treatment of substance use disorder and the prevention of overdose.