Mental illness (MI), substance use disorders (SUD), and their co-occurrence (dual diagnosis) are disproportionately high among justice-involved people. Accurate and reliable estimates of these diagnoses in prison settings constitute the most basic information required to identify health needs, appropriately allocate resources, and inform and identify health service delivery in prisons and post-release. Unfortunately, true prevalence rates are difficult to measure due to various limitations unique to each potential data source. In this webinar, Dr Darcy Coulter will present prevalence rate estimates of mental illness, substance use disorders and dual diagnosis among both non-Indigenous and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in custody and discuss how these differ depending on the type of data used.

About this speaker:

Darcy Coulter is a Research Fellow at the Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, University of Melbourne, and an incoming Research Fellow at the School of Population Health, Curtin University. Throughout his PhD (2022) and subsequent research fellow roles, he has gained considerable experience working with linked administrative data to understand and improve health and justice outcomes in vulnerable populations.