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The serious health and social challenges for people who have been incarcerated will be addressed through a $2.3 million grant awarded to Scientia Professor Louisa Degenhardt AC from the National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre (NDARC) at �������� by the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC).

Scientia Professor Degenhardt AC said people who leave prison frequently encounter difficulties related to mental health and drug use.

“Our project will provide world-first data on the effects of interventions to address these issues and provide specific data on the impacts for women and First Nations people,” Scientia Professor Degenhardt AC said.

“The multidisciplinary team brings together people with expertise in alcohol and other drugs, psychiatry, infectious disease, crime and criminal justice, mathematical modelling and biostatistics, alongside Aboriginal people and people representing or working with people who use drugs and people who have experienced incarceration.

“We will demonstrate the potential impact of making sure that more people are connected to mental health and substance use treatments most effective for them after their release.”

NDARC Director, Professor Michael Farrell said the study will address the inequities in health and social outcomes for this marginalised population.

“By addressing these issues, our study will drive systematic changes that significantly improve the lives of people released from incarceration,” Professor Farrell said.

The NHMRC Clinical Trials and Cohort Studies Grant will support the Prison Outcomes STudy (POST), which will use data linkage to quantify and optimise the effect of post-release health care on health and social outcomes in people released from prison.

The data linkage includes all people incarcerated in New South Wales (NSW) since 2000, linked to 16 NSW and national datasets. 

Specific analyses will be conducted focusing on women and First Nations people.

These data include information on crime, health service utilisation, infectious disease notifications, alcohol and other drug treatment, mental health treatment, social services, and mortality.

By integrating and analysing this comprehensive data the study aims to:

1. Quantify the most significant adverse health and social outcomes, such as mortality (including suicide and drug related deaths), hospitalisations, emergency department visits (psychiatric, overdose-related, and blood-borne virus-related), and recidivism.
2. Evaluate the effectiveness of existing mental health and drug dependence treatment in improving outcomes.
3. Mathematically model which interventions are likely to have the largest impact when scaled to a population level.

-ENDS-

Media contact: 0401 713 850 | ndarc.media@unsw.edu.au

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