A former mental health director who worked in Australia’s immigration detention centres has said data on the mental health of asylum seekers is falling “into a black hole”.
Psychiatrist Peter Young was a director with International Health and Mental Services, a company contracted to provide mental health services to detention centres.
He has raised concerns about the mental health of detainees since he left his post.
Dr Young said statistics were being collected, but are not being used or analysed.
“This data is being collected but it’s essentially going into a bit of a black hole,” he said.
“It’s not being reported systematically or analysed any more, unfortunately.”
Dr Young said the anonymous data on the mental health of detainees should be available for public scrutiny, in the same way as statistics are recorded in the broader population.
“We should treat mental health services in detention exactly the same as mental health services in the rest of community, with the same reporting practices and the same degree of transparency,” he said.
The Department of Immigration said the data it received on the mental health of migrants was analysed and used to monitor the mental health and wellbeing of people in detention.
In a statement, a spokeswoman for the department said it was “committed to ensuring that it has the best available information and expertise to manage the health of those in detention”.