About our research:

The over-representation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples (Indigenous Australians) with mental health disorders and cognitive disabilities (MHDCD) in Australian criminal justice systems (CJS) is a matter of utmost importance to Government, policy makers, Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians.
The IAMHDCD Project brings an Indigenous informed mixed method research approach to the study of this issue. Qualitative interviews will afford new and in depth understandings from an Indigenous perspective and school education and welfare data will be merged with our existing rich dataset (MHDCD Project Dataset). The MHDCD dataset comprises data on 2,731 persons who have been in prison from Police, Corrections, Justice Health and other health areas, Courts (BOSCAR), Juvenile Justice, Legal Aid, Disability, Housing and Community Services to allow a whole of life picture of institutional involvement. The dataset will be used to investigate the pathways Indigenous Australians with MHDCD take into, around and through the Human Service (HS) and CJS and their experiences of the systems and system interactions. IAMHDCD Project →