10. Recommendations and Solutions

10.   RECOMMENDATIONS AND SOLUTIONS[1]

10.1    OVERARCHING PRINCIPLES   

Based on the qualitative and quantitative findings of our study, we recommend that the following five principles and associated strategies should underpin policy review and implementation:

Based on the qualitative and quantitative findings of our study, we recommend that the following five principles and associated strategies should underpin policy review and implementation:

10.1.1  Self-Determination

Self-determination is key to improving access to and exercise of human rights and to the wellbeing of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people with mental and cognitive disability, especially for those in the criminal justice system.

Strategies:

• Indigenous-led knowledge and solutions and community-based services should be appropriately supported and resourced.
• The particular disadvantage faced by women and people in regional and remote areas should be foregrounded in any policy response to this issue.
• Resources to build the cultural competency and security of non-Indigenous agencies, organisations and communities who work with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people with mental and cognitive impairment who are in contact with the criminal justice system should be provided.

10.1.2  Person-Centred Care

Person-centred care, which is culturally and circumstantially appropriate is essential for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people with mental and cognitive disability, placing an individual at the centre of their own care in identifying and making decisions about their needs for their own recovery.

Strategies

• Disability services in each jurisdiction, along with the NDIS should ensure there is a complex support needs strategy supporting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people with disability in contact with criminal justice agencies.
• Specialised accommodation and treatment options for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people with mental and cognitive disability in the criminal justice system should be made available in the community to prevent incarceration and in custodial settings to improve wellbeing.
• Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people with mental and cognitive disability who are at risk of harm to themselves or others and who have been in the custody of police or corrections should not be returned to their community without specialist support.

10.1.3  Holistic and Flexible Approach

A defined and operationalised holistic and flexible approach in services for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people with mental and cognitive disability and complex support needs is needed from first contact with service systems.

Strategies

• Early recognition via maternal and infant health services, early childhood and school education, community health services and police should lead to positive and preventive support allowing Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and young people with disability to develop and flourish.
• A range of ‘step-down’ accommodation options for people with cognitive impairment in the criminal justice system should be available. The NSW Community Justice Program (CJP) provides a useful template.
• Community based sentencing options should be appropriately resourced, integrated and inclusive so they have the capacity and approach needed to support Indigenous people with mental and cognitive disability.

10.1.4  Integrated Services

Integrated services are better equipped  to provide effective referral, information sharing and case management to support Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people with mental and cognitive disability in the criminal justice system.

Strategies

• Justice, Corrections and Human Services departments and relevant non-government services should take a collaborative approach to designing program pathways for people with multiple needs who require support across all the human and justice sectors
• All prisoners with cognitive impairment must be referred to the public advocate of that jurisdiction.

10.1.5  Culture, Disability and Gender-informed practice

It is vital that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people’s understandings of ‘disability’ and ‘impairment’ inform all approaches to the development and implementation of policy and practice for Indigenous people with mental and cognitive disability in the criminal justice system, with particular consideration of issues facing Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women.

Strategies

• Better education and information are needed for police, teachers, education support workers, lawyers, magistrates, health, corrections, disability and community service providers regarding understanding and working with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women and men with cognitive impairment, mental health disorders and complex support needs.
• Information and resources are needed for Indigenous communities, families and carers, provided in a culturally informed and accessible way.
• The distinct and specific needs of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women should be foregrounded in such education and information.

[1] The IAMHDCD project reiterates and endorses the recommendations of the report by the Aboriginal Disability Justice Campaign, No End in Sight: The Imprisonment and Indefinite Detention of Indigenous Australians with a Cognitive Impairment (2012) and the report by the Australian Human Rights Commission, Equal Before the Law: Towards Disability Justice Strategies (2014). Members of the IAMHDCD project team contributed to these reports based on our research. Many of the findings and recommendations contained in those reports have regrettably not been acted on, so we emphasise their continuing relevance and urgency.