Cohort profile: Understanding the influence of early life environments and health and social service system contacts over time and across generations through the Western Australian Aboriginal Child Health Survey (WAACHS) Linked Data Study.

Purpose: Despite the volume of accumulating knowledge from prospective Aboriginal cohort studies, longitudinal data describing developmental trajectories in health and well-being is limited. The linkage of child and carer cohorts from a historical cross-sectional survey with longitudinal health-service and social-service administrative data has created a unique and powerful data resource that underpins the Western Australian Aboriginal Child Health Survey (WAACHS) linked data study. This study aims to provide evidence-based information to Aboriginal communities across Western Australia, governments and non-government agencies on the heterogeneous life trajectories of Aboriginal children and families.

: Evaluation of a training intervention to increase capacity in managing detained youth with fetal alcohol spectrum disorder and neurodevelopmental impairments.

The first study to investigate the prevalence of fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD) within an Australian juvenile detention centre has identified the highest known prevalence of FASD among a justice-involved population worldwide. However, there has been limited investigation into the capacity of the custodial workforce to identify and manage young people in Australian detention centres with FASD or other neurodevelopmental impairment (NDI), and no published interventions aiming to develop environments appropriate for those with FASD in justice settings. Using the Template for Intervention Description and Replication checklist, this study describes the conception, implementation and evaluation of a training intervention aiming to upskill the custodial workforce in the management of youth with FASD and NDI; 117 staff participated in the intervention, and 109 completed pre- and post-intervention surveys.

Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD): Knowledge, attitudes, experiences and practices of the Western Australian youth custodial workforce.

Background: Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) is a condition caused by prenatal alcohol exposure and characterised by lifelong physical, behavioural and cognitive abnormalities. Primary disabilities, such as impairment in memory, attention, cognition, language, executive function, and adaptive function, can lead to young people with FASD becoming engaged with the justice system. Little is known about the extent of FASD in youth detention in Australia, or of the capacity custodial staff have to manage and support young people with FASD.

Fetal alcohol spectrum disorder and youth justice: a prevalence study among young people sentenced to detention in Western Australia.

Objectives: To estimate the prevalence of fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD) among young people in youth detention in Australia. Neurodevelopmental impairments due to FASD can predispose young people to engagement with the law. Canadian studies identified FASD in 11%-23% of young people in corrective services, but there are no data for Australia.