A Prison Mental Health Screening Unit: a first for New South Wales.

Objective: The aims of this paper are to provide a description of a newly available service the Mental Health Screening Unit (MHSU), within the NSW prison system and to present the first 12 months in terms of the patients, its adaptations and its limitations.

Methods: The first section of this paper provides a thorough description of the MHSU. The second looks at data collected for the period 1 July 2006 to 30 June 2007.

Mental disorder in the New South Wales prisoner population.

Objectives: To determine the prevalence of mental illness among prisoners in New South Wales (NSW), Australia.

Method: Mental illness was examined in two NSW prisoner populations: (i) new receptions to the correctional system; and (ii) sentenced prisoners. Reception prisoners were screened at four male centres and one female centre in NSW.

Role of the Thrombelastograph as an adjunctive test in thrombophilia screening.

The Thrombelastograph (TEG) provides a global assessment of haemostatic function. We have investigated the potential role of TEG in thrombophilia testing by studying 87 consecutive patients (all with personal or family history of thrombosis). For each patient, routine thrombophilia screening tests and TEG were performed in parallel.