Forensic Mental Health

Current Research

Key research projects:

1. Stage of Psychosis in Prison (SOPP) study

A prison-based cross-sectional study focused on understanding the prevalence of psychosis amongst prisoners entering prison in terms of the full spectrum of psychosis stages - from those at ultra high risk to those presenting with psychosis for the first time to those with an established psychotic illness.  It has involved interview-based data collection from three prison settings - one male remand centre and two adolescent detention centres.  Data collection was completed in 2016.

2. Prison mental health screening study

A trial of a new approach to screening adult prisoners for mental health problems at reception into prison.  It is part-funded by the Centre for Research Excellence in Offender Health (put link to the CRE website).

3. Criminal and health outcomes following mental health diversion from court: a record-linkage study

A record linkage study involving a large cohort of adult and adolescent offenders seen and recommended for mental health diversion by court liaison teams across NSW.  Data collected by the court liaison teams will be linked to statewide health and criminal record data obtained from administrative datasets to examine the health and criminal offending outcomes of those recommended for mental health diversion, comparing in particular those who were successfully diverted at the outset.

4. Mental Health Review Tribunal Forensic Patient study

Data from the files held by the NSW Mental Health Review Tribunal on Forensic Patients are being extracted to produce a dataset which will enable description of the characteristics and outcomes of Forensic Patients as well as to provide a cohort for record-linkage to health and criminal records.

5. New South Wales Child Development Study (NSW-CDS)

Information about this study can be found here: http://nsw-cds.com.au/

  • Key staff: A/Prof. Kimberlie Dean, Daria Korobanova, Prabin Chemjong, Yinlan Soon
  • Students: PhD Natalia Yee, MPhil Boniface Makoni, Jesse Nastaly, Natasha Rae, Yolisha Singh, Catherine Crouch

Co-ordinator:
A/Professor Kimberlie Dean
Email: k.dean@unsw.edu.au