The HARP trial: improving mental health and wellbeing after release from prison
This project aims to improve the health and wellbeing of people who are incarcerated.
Background
Incarceration in Australia
More than 67,000 people are released from Australian prisons each year.
People who experience incarceration have a high prevalence of complex, co-occurring health problems. Health outcomes for people released from prison are typically poor.
To improve health outcomes for people released from prisons in Australia, we are co-designing and evaluating a scalable, evidence-based, culturally safe model of transitional care. Transitional care can include coordinated health and social support that bridges the gap between services received during incarceration and services available in the community.
Approach
Co-designing the model
We will work with people from the community to design a culturally safe transitional care model that responds to different ages and genders. This work will be guided by a review of existing services across Australia, detailed analysis of unique international cohort research data held by our team, and consultations with communities nationwide to improve the mental health and wellbeing of adults release from prison.
Testing the model
We will test this model through a practical randomised controlled trial to check whether it works, is acceptable to participants, is affordable, and can be delivered effectively in real-world settings. This will help support wider use and scaling of the transitional care model.
Adapting the model
We will partner with service providers and people with lived experience of incarceration to adapt the model for other settings and support its broader rollout.
Community impact
Improving mental health for nearly 70,000 Australians
This project has the potential to meaningfully improve the mental health and wellbeing of the almost 70,000 adults (including >26,000 Indigenous people) released from Australian prisons each year.
Partners
Funding partners
Medical Research Future Fund (#MRF2040877)
Collaborators
- Mental Health Matters 2
- Metro South Hospital and Health Service
- Transitions Clinic Network
- Queensland Corrective Services
- Justice Health and Forensic Mental Health Network
- Department of Health SA
- Outcare
- Wungening Aboriginal Corporation
Project contacts
Project team
Chief investigators
Professor Stuart Kinner
Professor
Curtin University
Dr Darcy Coulter
Research Fellow
Curtin University
Dr Michael Curtis
Postdoctoral Research Officer
Professor Mark A Stoové
Head of Public Health
Professor David Preen
Chair in Public Health
University of Western Australia
Dr Craig Cumming
Research Fellow
University of Western Australia
Associate Professor Michael Doyle
Associate Professor
University of Sydney
Professor Penelope Abbott
Professor
Western Sydney University
Professor Kimberlie Dean
Head of the Discipline of Psychiatry and Mental Health
University of New South Wales
Professor Rohan Borschmann
Honorary Professorial Fellow
University of Melbourne
Dr Jesse Young
Senior Research Fellow
University of Melbourne
Dr Lucas Calais Ferreira
CEB Unit Head - Twins Research Australia
University of Melbourne
Professor Edward Heffernan
Director, Queensland Forensic Mental Health Service (QFMHS); Professor, Faculty of Medicine
University of Queensland
Professor Dennis Petrie
Professor (Research), Centre for Health Economics
Monash University
Emily Wang
Professor of Medicine (General Medicine) and of Public Health (Social and Behavioral Sciences)
Yale School of Medicine
Associate investigators
Ashleigh Stewart
Postdoctoral Research Fellow
Associate Professor Lisa Puglisi
Associate Professor of Medicine (General Medicine)
Yale School of Medicine
Dr Marshall Watson
Child and Adolescent Forensic Psychiatrist
Women's and Children's Health Network
Professor Megan Williams
Adjunct Professor, School of Public Health
University of Technology Sydney
Associate Professor Balaji Motamarri
DMS
Metro South Hospital and Health Service
Dr Thomas Cheung
Psychiatrist
Metro South Hospital and Health Service
Dr Sophie Davison
Chief Psychiatrist
Department of Health and Aged Care
Andrew Wiley
Director, SA Prison Health Service at Central Adelaide
Department of Health SA
Dr Shira Shavit
Professor, Family and Community Medicine
University of California San Francisco
Associate Professor James Foulds
Associate Professor
University of Otago
Professor Julia Crilly
Professor
Griffith University
Associate Professor Fiona Kouyoumdjian
Associate Professor, Family Medicine
McMaster University
Dr Abigail Lane
Psychiatrist
Queensland Health