The Mental And Physical Health Of Aboriginal Women In Australian Prisons

Overview of Aboriginal Women’s Health in Australia

Question:

Discuss about the Health Problems and Social Determinants affecting the Population.

The aboriginal or “indigenous” population of Australia are the country’s native population. The health conditions of the aboriginal people of the country are in much worse state than the non-native people and this poses as a problem for the overall national health standards of Australia. The western colonization in Australia has greatly affected the health of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander (ATSI) women. The dramatically altered socio-economic condition and a shift in the environmental aspects have been the key reasons for the health of the aboriginals to become deteriorated (Shepherd & Phillips, 2016). Among the aboriginal women, the ones who are currently in prison have even more deplorable health conditions. The health of the imprisoned aboriginal women is the worse among all the racial and ethnic groups of the country. 34 percent of the total incarcerated population of the country is made up of Australian aboriginal women. The rate of incarceration across Australia has increased significantly except for South Australia. The number of inmates in the Australian prisons rose by 69 percent in 2016 when compared to the number of 2015. The native population of Australia makes up for 2.5 percent of Australia’s total population. Most of them live in the Northern Territory and new South wales, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) (Shepherd et al., 2017). According to the Department of Health (DoH), the total imprisoned aboriginals constitute 27 percent of the total number of prisoners in Australia.

There is a stark variation in the percentage growth in the number of female prisoners to be incarcerated over the last decade as compared to the percentage of the males for the same. The female imprisonment rate grew a startling 42 percent as compared to a 24 percent for the males. Australian aboriginal females are the fastest growing population in the country. Aboriginal females are also the most incarcerated population in the country with 404 indigenous females to be imprisoned per 100,000 adult inmates in Australia. 90 percent of the jailed women in the Northern Territory are indigenous.

The most severe health issue among the imprisoned aboriginal women is exposure to sexually transmitted infections, as most of them are prone to being sexually active without any protection due to the restrictions and confinement of prisons. Indigenous imprisoned women have reported high numbers of STIs while being detained (Shepherd et al., 2016). The percentage of aboriginal women with STIs rose dramatically before and after a year of indictment. Physical and sexual abuse is another major problem that is faced by the aboriginal female inmates. Rampant activities within the prison is a major reason for the imprisoned females to have blood related diseases. Unprotected piercings, getting tattoos, intravenous drug use are all primary causes for a high number of aboriginal female inmates to have poor health.

Aboriginal Women’s Health in Australian Prisons

In recent studies, mental health of these female aboriginal inmates has become a serious issue that needs to be addressed as soon as possible. Anxiety, depression, schizophrenia and personality disorder are only some of the most severe mental health problems that are faced by these women. The number of aboriginal female inmates with mental health issues is significantly higher than the male inmates with mental health problems (Black  et al., 2015). PTSD is another major thing to affect the women inmates of indigenous origin, which often lead them towards substance abuse. Almost 60 percent of the incarcerated aboriginal females are suffering from mental health problems who also are prey to substance abuse.

Such poor physical and mental health problems among the aboriginal imprisoned females in Australia are widespread and this is a serious issue that needs to be addressed as soon as possible, otherwise the country cannot hope to maintain an overall health of its citizens. Sustainable inclusive development will also not be achieved if this continues. Hence, there is a dire need to change the condition of the female aboriginal women in prison with mental health issues. It needs to be understood that even the inmates are humans and for as long as they live, they have the right to live in control of their own body and mind (Simpson  et al., 2017). it is necessary to provide for the mental health of the inmates and the females are to be given more focus as their lives are always in more danger and prone to assaults than that of the men (Shepherd & Phillips, 2016). No racial or ethnic discrimination against the aboriginal women should be tolerated or encouraged because every person in the country are declared to be equal in the country’s constitution and it is a criminal offence to hold racial ideologies within the Commonwealth.

The indigenous people of Torres strait have already suffered enough from colonisation, forced removal from their own lands, assimilation, segregation and racism. It is the duty of the Commonwealth to provide them with the basic human rights and give them the mental stability they deserve, even if they are in prison. It must be taken into account that the laws of the country are still not entirely in favour of the aboriginals and they face immense discrimination in legal grounds even now. The Torres Strait people have always viewed life from a holistic point, where social, emotional and cultural well-being are given just as much priority and importance as physical wellness (Baldry & Cunneen,  2014). The fact that colonisation has interrupted in the cultural and social lives of the aboriginals is the major reason that generations of the indigenous population have been plummeted towards social depression and anxiety has creeped in.

The Most Severe Health Issues among Imprisoned Aboriginal Women

The term “correctional home” may seem like a farce as most of the aboriginal women who are currently in prison have records of past imprisonments. Obviously the correcting methods are not working and need to be rectified as soon as possible, if the health of the women are to be improved.

With these in mind, a plan has been devised that aims to improve the mental health conditions of the Australian aboriginal women in prison. A group of psychologists have been gathered who will be conducting interviews with the aboriginal female inmates. These interviews would be giving the researchers ideas about what do these inmates perceive as their most daunting problems. The researchers would also understand what are the trends among these women. Specific situations regarding what are the triggers to set the women off and plunge them down a path of mental illness would also be shed light upon (Bradley et al., 2015). The project has been made to be of qualitative descriptive nature that would be looking into the various traits of the aboriginal women in Australian prisons and would be more inclined towards giving a theoretical perspective into the matter, rather than simply giving statistical data and numerical values of the situation. Instead, this research is formed to be much more “intimate’ and would be specifically underlining the facts about what are the root causes of the mental problems faced by these females.

The research that has been designed in this project would be providing much needed insight about the health conditions of the native women in Australian prisons. Contemporary and currently existing data and researches solely focus upon the trends and what are the most troubling problems that are faced by these women. However, very little has been done to understand the backgrounds and mental issues that force them into depression and other mentally troubling conditions as well as prompting them to abuse on substances (Sodhi?Berry et al., 2014).

The objectives of the research have been set in accordance to the initial ideas about the prevailing problems. These are:

• To find out what are the issues that are faced by the aboriginal females in Australian prisons
• To conduct widespread surveys to have in-depth knowledge about the problems
• Take interviews with these inmates to understand what are the problems and to analyse what are the root causes of these problems and how may they be triggered
• To figure out the feasible solutions to these problems

Budget estimate: A total budget of $2.500 has been allocated for the research work.

Purpose	Allocated Budget ($)
Concerned literature and related books on the subject	1,000
Transport for the researchers	500
Stationary	500
Tools and equipment	5000

The budget of the research has been reviewed and approved by the committee that is overlooking the entire project and some international and local voluntary groups have also promised extra funds if the progress of the project goes according to the initial plans. That way, a shortage of funds can be ruled out and this would be highly beneficial for the research. As the research moves ahead, further requirements and aspects would be noticed and more funds shall be requested as needed.

Addressing the Mental Health Issues of Aboriginal Women in Prison

Timeline estimate:

Main activity	1st week	2nd week	3rd and 4th weeks	5th  and 6th weeks	7th and 8th weeks
Identify the targeted population of the aboriginal female inmates in Australia
Implementation the effective strategies as per the recognized research subjects
Monitor the implemented strategy
Changes if required
Finalise the plan and strategy

The objectives of the project have been set in a way that would be realistic, so that they can be achieved in reality and do not just remain matters written on the papers. A SMART strategy can make all the difference and this is exactly what will be adopted when planning for the research.

Strategies: The plans that have been devised will follow a SMART structure.

Specific: It would be “specific”, solely focusing on the in depth research on the mental issues of the aboriginal Australian women inmates and to understand the social, political, economic and mental problems that cause them to suffer from mental problems.

Measurable: The strategy is “measurable”, the analysis and the results would be presented in a way that would be understandable by everyone and can be measured in quantifiable manners. The research would be done using surveys and interviews with female aboriginal inmates which would have clear content and would be helpful to measure the significance of the problems and the trend or impact of the causes to these. However, the emphasis of the research would be heavily on the emotional and psychological aspect.

Attainable: The planned strategies are “attainable”, making the researchers equipped to successfully complete the project. The survey data and the other information that would be gathered is going to be given to mental health care professional who would be then study the interview records to understand what are the prime reasons behind the mental health issues.

Realistic: The research is realistic in nature as this is a serious issue and a stigma to the modern Australian society which has to be addressed at an earliest. Strategies are also “realistic”, which means no over-ambitious goals have been set for the researchers that cannot be achieved.

Timely: The research strategy is also “timely”, meaning that it has a proper timescale to maintain and no open end research can be done.

Evaluation: After the research has been completed, the collected data has given the results, the results would then be evaluated to understand the implications of the results and if there are any correlation between the psychological state of the female aboriginal prisoners of Australia and their status and socio-economic position in the country’s social structure (Parker & Milroy, 2014). These evaluations would be helpful to come up with new researches and recommendations, as well as more psychological studies, regarding what methods can be adopted to make sure that the mental condition of these women can be bettered. More researches can also be done to figure out the roots of the problems that stem these poor conditions for the women.

Objectives and Strategies of the Research Project

To execute this project in a proper and cohesive manner, a number of local and national organisations have been involved in this (Cutcher et al., 2014). The local community and some voluntary groups have also been made to understand the main reasons behind this research and the crucial need to provide support to these indigenous women so that they can live at least a better life, even though in confinement. Some NGOs and voluntary groups have agreed to aid in the research, while other corporate groups have committed to provide extra funding for the research.  A few international social service groups will be monitoring the progress of the research and, if, they find the results and prospects of the research to be attractive, would be joining the research as partners and provide their own resources, which can be used by the researchers for more and in-depth analysis (Jewkes, Crewe & Bennett, 2016). The local communities have given their whole hearted support for the research and they have also pledged to extend their help as much as they can for the research and provide the indigenous women with as much support as possible. The communities have promised to create a society that would not make these imprisoned people feel like outcasts or ignored; not only the women, but all the members of the indigenous tribes.

After the research is conducted, the findings would be published on the national journals and psychology papers, so that more people could be made aware of the situation that is prevailing in the Australian prisons and how are aboriginal women kept in these cells. Their mental conditions would be brought to light before the people of the country, with the hopes that these would act as an eye-opener for them and they would, in accordance to the ideologies of the country’s laws and constitutions, come forward to socially eliminate the root causes for these mental ailments among the indigenous female Australian prisoners. After the research has been conducted, the remaining funds, if any, would be donated to further research and diagnosis of the female aboriginal inmates. Luckily, there are going to be very few equipment that would have to be bought for the research purposes. This equipment can be either kept even after the research as they are daily objects which are necessary and can be used for further needs or any research. They can also be given to any other group or research facility that would be interested in conducting further surveys and take deeper looks into the matter.

References

Baldry, E., & Cunneen, C. (2014). Imprisoned Indigenous women and the shadow of colonial patriarchy. Australian & New Zealand Journal of Criminology, 47(2), 276-298.

Black, E. B., Ranmuthugala, G., Kondalsamy-Chennakesavan, S., Toombs, M. R., Nicholson, G. C., & Kisely, S. (2015). A systematic review: Identifying the prevalence rates of psychiatric disorder in Australia’s Indigenous populations. Australian & New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry, 49(5), 412-429.

Bradley, P., Dunn, S., Lowell, A., & Nagel, T. (2015). Acute mental health service delivery to Indigenous women: What is known?. International journal of mental health nursing, 24(6), 471-477.

Cutcher, Z., Degenhardt, L., Alati, R., & Kinner, S. A. (2014). Poor health and social outcomes for ex?prisoners with a history of mental disorder: a longitudinal study. Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health, 38(5), 424-429.

Jewkes, Y., Crewe, B., & Bennett, J. (Eds.). (2016). Handbook on prisons. Routledge.

Ogloff, J. R., Pfeifer, J. E., Shepherd, S. M., & Ciorciari, J. (2017). Assessing the Mental Health, Substance Abuse, Cognitive Functioning, and Social/Emotional Well-Being Needs of Aboriginal Prisoners in Australia. Journal of Correctional Health Care, 1078345817723345.

Parker, R., & Milroy, H. (2014). Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander mental health: an overview. Working together: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander mental health and wellbeing principles and practice, 2, 25-38.

Shepherd, S. M., & Phillips, G. (2016). Cultural ‘Inclusion’or Institutional Decolonisation: How should prisons address the mental health needs of Indigenous prisoners?. Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry, 50(4), 307-308.

Shepherd, S. M., Delgado, R. H., Sherwood, J., & Paradies, Y. (2017). The impact of indigenous cultural identity and cultural engagement on violent offending. BMC public health, 18(1), 50.

Shepherd, S. M., Pfeifer, J., Paradies, Y., & Ogloff, J. R. P. (2016). Aboriginal prisoners with cognitive impairment–is this highest risk group. Trends & issues.

Simpson, P. L., Simpson, P. L., Guthrie, J., Guthrie, J., Butler, T., & Butler, T. (2017). Prison health service directors’ views on research priorities and organizational issues in conducting research in prison: outcomes of a national deliberative roundtable. International Journal of Prisoner Health, 13(2), 113-123.

Sodhi?Berry, N., Preen, D. B., Alan, J., Knuiman, M., & Morgan, V. A. (2014). Pre?sentence mental health service use by adult offenders in Western Australia: Baseline results from a longitudinal whole?population cohort study. Criminal behaviour and mental health, 24(3), 204-221.