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.
