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Detainees in police watch-houses have complex health needs in a difficult environment that nevertheless provides a unique chance to “intercept a vulnerable, complex and otherwise hard-to-reach population, and identify unmet health needs,” according the authors of a Perspective published today by the Medical Journal of Australia .
Professor Julia Crilly, Professor of Emergency Care at Gold Coast Hospital and Health Service and Griffith University, and colleagues reflect on a recent report that indicates 43 (9%) of the 505 deaths in police custody between 1991 and 2016 occurred in a police station, police vehicle, police cell, or watch-house. Almost half of those were deaths due to a medical cause (49%).
“As a group, [police watch-house detainees] are largely disconnected from health services, so beyond their immediate, untreated health problems, comparatively little is known about underlying and unaddressed social determinants,” Crilly and colleagues wrote.