The Impact of a Short-Term Mental Health Intervention Delivered in an Australian Prison: A Multi-Cultural Comparison

Abstract

The Australian prison population is increasingly diverse, yet there is limited research assessing the impact of mental health interventions across culturally diverse groups. This study aimed to evaluate the impact of a short-term psycho-educational program on psychological distress, symptoms of mental illness, coping processes, cognitive fusion (i.e., attachment to patterns of thinking or specific thoughts) and somatic issues for 124 people in prison. Cross-cultural comparisons for intervention effects were made for three cultural groups: culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD; N = 45), Indigenous Australian (N = 24) and English-speaking background (ESB; N = 55). Several differences in intervention outcomes were observed across the cultural groups. Following completion of the program, ESB participants reported significantly reduced levels of depressive symptoms, avoidance coping, cognitive fusion and somatic issues. CALD participants reported significantly reduced somatic issues post-intervention. No significant differences were found in the Indigenous Australian group. These findings indicate that cultural background may influence the effectiveness of mental health interventions delivered within prisons. As such, prisons should aim to offer specialized culturally appropriate mental health services to meet diverse needs.

Keywords:

• Prisoners
• mental health intervention or program
• cross-cultural or multicultural prison populations

Notes

1 In Australia, prisons include people who are both sentenced to a period of incarceration following a finding of guilt as well as those who have been remanded into custody pending trial. The distinction between prisons and jails is not made as it is in the United States.

Additional information

Funding

The present research was funded by an Australian Research Council Linkage Grant with G4S Australia and Swinburne University of Technology as partners.