Use of the Westerman Aboriginal Symptoms Checklist – Youth (WASC-Y) to screen for mental health problems in Indigenous youth in custody

A Systematic Review of the Antecedents and Prevalence of Suicide, Self-Harm and Suicide Ideation in Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Youth

“…The results were therefore synthesised narratively. Studies were grouped into five (not mutually exclusive) categories, including studies that evaluated the prevalence of suicide among indigenous youth via analysis of coronial data ( k = 8), [26,27,28,29,30,31,32,33]; studies that evaluated the prevalence of self-harm and attempted suicide via analysis of hospital admissions records ( k = 3), [34,35,36]; studies that evaluated the prevalence of suicide, self-harm, or suicide ideation among Indigenous youth in the community ( k = 7), [37,38,39,40,41,42,43]; studies that involved samples of incarcerated Indigenous youth ( k = 4), [44,45,46,47]; and studies that evaluated risk factors associated with suicide, self-harm, and suicidal ideation among Indigenous youth ( k = 5), [33,38,39,40,41]. The characteristics of the studies included in this review are summarised in Table 1.…”

“…The majority of studies reviewed reported analysis of morbidity or mortality data (i.e., hospital admission records or coronial reports) with a focus on the prevalence of suicide and self-harm ( k = 11) [26,27,28,29,30,31,32,33,34,35,36]. The majority of studies involved adolescent groups (10–19 years; k = 17), [26,27,28,29,32,33,34,35,38,40,41,42,43,44,45,46,47] followed by young adult (15–24 years) ( k = 11) [27,29,30,31,34,35,36,37,39,42,43] and child samples (0–14 years; k = 6). [27,29,32,33,35,43].…”

“…Seven studies reported prevalence estimates of suicidal ideation among Indigenous youth, with estimates ranging from 9.1 to 46% [32,37,39,40,42,44,46,47].…”

“…One study [37] indicated that almost half (46% n = 450) of all calls made to a telephone counselling service by Aboriginal young people related to suicidal ideation or suicide related concerns. Studies also suggested that the prevalence of suicidal ideation was higher among Aboriginal youth who were incarcerated [47] compared to Aboriginal youth living in the community [39,40]. However, amongst incarcerated youth, two studies suggested no difference between Indigenous and nonindigenous detainees or those on remand with regards to suicidal ideation [44,46].…”

Validating a screening tool for mental health and substance use risk in an Indigenous prison population

“…This is the first study to assess the use of the IRIS screening tool for substance use and mental health problems in an adult Indigenous incarcerated population. Although previous studies have validated mental health screening tools against self‐report measures, they were either community based or in youth populations .…”