Preventing Crime and Promoting Rights for Indigenous Young People with Cognitive Disabilities and Mental Health Issues Part 4
Preventing Crime and Promoting Rights for Indigenous Young People with Cognitive Disabilities and Mental Health Issues
Part 4
Conclusion and Recommendations
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Indigenous young people with cognitive disabilities and/ or mental health
issues in contact with the juvenile justice system get very little attention in
literature, in policy and arguably in practice as well. We have seen that this
is a forgotten group of young people who are frequently labelled as
‘complex’ (code for too hard to work with) and often receive
inadequate or inappropriate service. Despite the fact that many of the causes of
offending behaviour lie in the early school years, all too often, early
identification and early intervention opportunities pass these young people by.
It is not until they are in crisis that they stand a chance of assistance. All
of these factors increase the likelihood that these young people will progress
to the juvenile justice system.
However, we have found that there is no shortage of commitment, enthusiasm
and good ideas about how to help these young people. Although they might not be
supported by policy or large scale programs, there are a number of dedicated
professionals on the ground that work tremendously hard with these young people
to prevent offending and involvement in the juvenile justice system.
Our case studies focused on some areas of promising practice in this area.
Our approach was to look at programs that have the capacity to work well with
this group of young people, even if they don’t specifically target this
group. Many of the programs were relatively new so our assessment of the impact
was based on consultations with workers and preliminary evidence. Taken
together, we can see that there are a wide range of intervention points that
present for Indigenous young people with cognitive disabilities and/ or mental
health issues, from the early years, through to school, early adolescence and
offending stages. This continuum of assessment and service shows the opportunity
and capacity for a range of early intervention and diversionary strategies that
can reduce offending amongst this group.
Based on these skills and expertise, we have developed a set of best practice
principles that guide policy and practice with Indigenous young people with
cognitive disabilities and/ or mental health issues.
Best practice principles:
- Indigenous young people with cognitive disabilities and/ or
mental health issues have many of the same needs as Indigenous young people
without these conditions
They come from the same families and same communities but face the
additional disadvantage due to their cognitive disability or mental health
issue. This means that policies and programs need to go beyond the cognitive
disability or mental health issue to look at cultural needs as well.
- The social determinants of health need to be met to improve
outcomes for Indigenous young people with cognitive disabilities and/or mental
health issues
Social determinants of health are factors in society or in our
living conditions that affect our health, for better or for worse, throughout
life. Things such as education, housing, transport, employment, working
conditions, enough money, clean drinking water, sanitation, and a good start
to life are just some of the social determinants of health. These basic
preconditions provide the solid foundation that specific disability or mental
health interventions must be built on. Equally, if this foundation is not
strong, further disability or mental health interventions will collapse.
- Service delivery must be holistic.
This means that interventions should address physical,
psychological, emotional, social, spiritual and cultural aspects of
wellbeing.
- Intervention must be culturally aware and appropriate
This means that workers and policy makers need to examine their own
perceptions and expectations of Indigenous children, young people, families and
communities. This is critical during assessment but will also lead to better
relationships and service delivery. Cultural awareness also needs to encompass
an understanding of history and current community challenges such as family
violence and abuse which impact on young people with mental health problems and
contact with the juvenile justice system.
- Communities need to be involved and have control over
programs.
In particular this means engaging with Indigenous concepts of
disability and mental health, as well as consulting with communities to
understand service barriers and gaps. Indigenous communities have the knowledge
about the problems as well as the solutions, so active partnerships should be
formed when developing and implementing programs.
This principle should extend all the way through to juvenile justice
services, with government juvenile justice agencies drawing on Indigenous
services and community networks. This means Indigenous workers and organisations
should be at the centre of interventions for these young people and involved on
a systematic rather than ad hoc way.
- Interventions should build on strengths and positive
identity
Many Indigenous young people grow up confronted by negative
stereotypes which can decrease their self confidence and self esteem. Pride in
cultural identity should be fostered at all stages of intervention.
- Service needs to rights based
Indigenous young people do not need another label or further
stigmatisation. A rights based model can help frame services in terms of rights,
entitlements and equality rather than to focus on deficits.
The other side of a rights based model is that it implies that firm
benchmarks, targets and timeframes are put in place to make governments and
service providers accountable and ensure that improvements are progressively
made.
- Flexible service
Indigenous young people are less likely to come into offices and
clinics or keep strict appointments. Outreach is the preferred model of service
delivery.
- It’s never too late
There are points of diversion and intervention throughout the life
course. We can’t give up on young people just because they have gotten in
trouble or are challenging to work with.
Future directions and recommendations
The best practice principles provide some broad guidelines for thinking about
working with Indigenous young people with cognitive disabilities and/ or mental
health issues but there are some more directed recommendations that can improve
early intervention and diversion for this group. These are all achievable
recommendations which can lead to concrete outcomes.
Knowledge
- That further work be undertaken to develop culturally appropriate
assessments of cognitive functioning and mental health issues. - That research needs to be conducted around the incidence and
appropriate treatment of Foetal Alcohol Syndrome and Post Traumatic Stress
Disorder amongst Indigenous young people. This also intersects with some of the
findings of the Bringing them home report.
Education and Awareness
- That education packages are developed in consultation with
Indigenous communities and Indigenous health professionals about cognitive
disabilities and/ or mental health issues. These should be initially targeted at
Aboriginal Health Workers to increase their ability to screen early for any
cognitive disability but then provided to other service providers involved with
assessment of this client group, including those in the education system. - That there are expanded screening and health clinics like the Kari
model (page 64) targeted to all children in the child protection system. - That further research is conducted on Indigenous young people being
inappropriately placed in special education programs, including community
consultations and consideration of human rights issues. - That education packages are developed for Police and legal
professionals (including Magistrates) about cognitive disabilities and/ or
mental health issues in Indigenous young people. This could help identify the
needs of this group and increase the likelihood of fair treatment and
diversion. - That a ‘common sense’ screening tool for cognitive
disabilities and/ or mental health issues is developed to be used by youth
workers and Indigenous services, based on the checklist used by the NSW Youth
Justice Conferencing coordinators (page 76) and the First Aid Mental Health
handbook under development by the Oxygen group at Melbourne university (pg 62).
Many workers acknowledge needs but have difficulty naming them as a cognitive
disability or mental health issue. This can mean that a young person misses out
on the resources, funding and support of specialised disability
services.
Support for what works
- That governments continue support for holistic early intervention
programs such as Tirkandi Inaburra (page 72) and investigate the possibility of
piloting a similar model in another location. - That Indigenous community controlled services are resourced to
provide service to all Indigenous young people in the juvenile justice system or
at risk of entering the juvenile justice system. They should have a systematic
role in supporting these young people and providing expert advice to
non-Indigenous workers at all points of intervention. - That pilot programs are developed for Indigenous young people at
risk of entering juvenile justice that target physical, psychological,
emotional, social, cultural and spiritual needs. An additional condition should
be that these pilot programs also have some experience in working with young
people with disabilities or mental health issues so that they can tailor their
service to this client group. - That Cultural Support Plans as used in the Victorian juvenile
justice system (page 83) are rolled out for all Indigenous young people in the
juvenile justice system.
Policy Processes
- That consideration of the issues and strategies raised in this
report inform the National Aboriginal Justice Agreement and state and regionally
based Indigenous Justice Agreements. - That this report is circulated to all organisations involved with
juvenile justice and in the development of National Indigenous Law and Justice
Framework and state and regionally based Indigenous Justice Agreements. - That all juvenile justice organisations include consideration of
how they will meet the specific needs of Indigenous young people with cognitive
disabilities and mental health issues in their strategic planning. This may be
through Disability Action Plans or other policy processes that ensures that
consideration is given to the specific needs of this group in all service
provision.
