Join the SSA Vic & Tas branch as we hear from Professor Stuart Kinner and Lindsay Pearce on their work using large, cross-sectoral data linkages, including important research design, and data management, analysis, and governance aspects. The event will held online and in-person via Zoom or in person at the performance space at the Library at The Dock in Docklands, at 6pm AEST on Thursday the 15th of June.
Abstract
The criminal justice system functions as a “filter” for some of the most marginalised and unwell members of our communities. Australians in contact with the criminal justice system experience disproportionately high rates of homelessness; poverty; child protection system involvement; comorbid mental illness, cognitive disability, substance use, chronic disease, and infectious disease; and premature mortality from preventable causes such as suicide, drug overdose, injury, and violence.In Australia, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are over-represented by a factor of 14 in adult prisons and by a factor of 18 in youth detention. Incarceration provides an important point of intervention to identify individuals with complex needs and address health inequity. Yet, research has consistently shown that incarceration leads to an escalation of risk of morbidity and mortality, particularly in the days and weeks immediately post-release.
Historically, a lack of population-level information on the health needs and healthcare trajectories of justice-involved Australians has precluded development of evidence-informed responses. This has further compounded inequities. In this seminar, we will present a body of work led by the Justice Health Group to fill this evidence gap using novel applications of cross-sectoral data linkage. We will identify some key methodological considerations for work of this sort, including aspects of research design, governance, and data management and analysis. We will demonstrate how well-designed and implemented data linkage research can lead to meaningful policy and practice reforms in justice health and similarly sensitive, politicised fields. We will make the case for cross-sectoral data linkage as a means of routinely monitoring the health and wellbeing of this population, to hold governments and correctional authorities accountable.
Biographies
Stuart Kinner is Professor of Health Equity at Curtin University, Head of the Justice Health Group at the University of Melbourne and Murdoch Children’s Research Institute, and an Adjunct Professor in the Griffith Criminology Institute. For the past two decades Stuart’s research has focussed on health services and health outcomes for people who encounter the criminal justice system. He Chairs Australia’s National Youth Justice Health Advisory Group. He serves on the WHO Health in Prisons Programme (WHO-HIPP) Steering Group, the Worldwide Prison Health Research and Engagement Network (WEPHREN) Steering Committee, and the Australian National Prisoner Health Information Committee (NPHIC).
Lindsay Pearce is a Research Associate at the School of Population Health, Curtin University, and an Honorary Research Associate at the Centre for Adolescent Health, Murdoch Children’s Research Institute. Lindsay is an early career researcher with over eight years of research experience focusing on the health and healthcare experiences of vulnerable populations including people who use drugs, the homeless, people living with HIV, and people in contact with the criminal justice system, using both qualitative and data linkage methods. She completed her Master of Public Health at the University of British Columbia in 2017.
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