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  • Trajectories of psychological distress after prison release: implications for mental health service need in ex-prisoners

    Author(s)
    Thomas, EG
    Spittal, MJ
    Heffernan, EB
    Taxman, FS
    Alati, R
    Kinner, SA
    Griffith University Author(s)
    Kinner, Stuart A.
    Taxman, Faye
    Thomas, Emma
    Year published
    2016
    Metadata
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    Abstract
    Background. Understanding individual-level changes in mental health status after prison release is crucial to providing targeted and effective mental health care to ex-prisoners. We aimed to describe trajectories of psychological distress following prison discharge and compare these trajectories with mental health service use in the community. Method. The Kessler Psychological Distress Scale (K10) was administered to 1216 sentenced adult prisoners in Queensland, Australia, before prison release and approximately 1, 3 and 6 months after release. We used groupbased trajectory modeling to identify K10 trajectories after release. ...
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    Background. Understanding individual-level changes in mental health status after prison release is crucial to providing targeted and effective mental health care to ex-prisoners. We aimed to describe trajectories of psychological distress following prison discharge and compare these trajectories with mental health service use in the community. Method. The Kessler Psychological Distress Scale (K10) was administered to 1216 sentenced adult prisoners in Queensland, Australia, before prison release and approximately 1, 3 and 6 months after release. We used groupbased trajectory modeling to identify K10 trajectories after release. Contact with community mental health services in the year following release was assessed via data linkage. Results. We identified five trajectory groups, representing consistently low (51.1% of the cohort), consistently moderate (29.8%), high increasing (11.6%), high declining (5.5%) and consistently very high (1.9%) psychological distress. Mood disorder, anxiety disorder, history of self-harm and risky drug use were risk factors for the high increasing, very high and high declining trajectory groups. Women were over-represented in the high increasing and high declining groups, but men were at higher risk of very high psychological distress. Within the high increasing and very high groups, 25% of participants accessed community mental health services in the first year post-release, for a median of 4.4 contact hours. Conclusions. For the majority of prisoners with high to very high psychological distress, distress persists after release. However, contact with mental health services in the community appears low. Further research is required to understand barriers to mental health service access among ex-prisoners
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    Journal Title
    Psychological Medicine
    Volume
    46
    Issue
    3
    DOI
    https://doi.org/10.1017/S0033291715002123
    Subject
    Psychology not elsewhere classified
    Neurosciences
    Public Health and Health Services
    Psychology
    Publication URI
    http://hdl.handle.net/10072/101813
    Collection
    • Journal articles

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