International journal of prisoner health
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Hepatitis C (HCV) infections are prevalent in custodial settings worldwide, yet provision of antiviral therapies is uncommon. Approximately 30,000 prisoners are held in Australian prisons at any one time, with more than 30 per cent testing positive for HCV antibodies. Prisoners have been identified in the National Hepatitis C Strategy as a priority population for assessment and treatment. The purpose of this paper is to examine the rates of HCV testing and treatment, as well as barriers and opportunities for development of infrastructure for enhanced services. ⋯ Many personal and systems-level barriers relevant to the delivery of HCV treatment services in the custodial setting were identified. Ready access to skilled nursing and medical staff as well as direct acting antiviral therapies will allow the prison-sector to make a major contribution to control of the growing burden of HCV disease.
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The purpose of this paper is to outline research which aimed to explore psychotherapists' experience of working with despair, in the UK prison setting, through a qualitative phenomenological approach. Within the forensic psychological literature, despair is considered a pathology, associated with suicide and self-harm, resulting from the prisoners histories and the coercive prison setting. In turn, therapeutic writings outline the importance of therapy in the prison setting with despair in providing coping skills, containment and learning opportunities for the prisoners involved. ⋯ It was therefore through the secondary analysis by reverie that the importance of the attendance to aspects of intersubjectivity in prison research emerged. This paper contributes to the therapeutic writings on despair in the prison setting, alongside holding implications for qualitative research in the prison setting.
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Int J Prison Health · Jan 2014
ReviewPalliative and end-of-life care in prisons: a content analysis of the literature.
The growing numbers of terminally ill and dying in prison has high economic and moral costs as global correctional systems and the society at large. However, to date little is known about the extent to which palliative and end-of-life care is infused within global prison health care systems. The purpose of this paper is to fill a gap in the literature by reviewing and critically appraising the methods and major findings of the international peer-reviewed literature on palliative and end-of-life care in prison, identify the common elements of promising palliative and end-of-life services in prison, and what factors facilitate or create barrier to implementation. ⋯ This paper extends the extant literature by using both quantitative and qualitative analysis methods to organize, summarize, and critically analyze the international literature on palliative care and end of life care in prison. This review is designed to increase awareness among the international community of the pain and suffering of the terminally ill in prison and the facilitators and barriers to providing them compassionate care while in custody.
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Int J Prison Health · Jan 2014
Bridging community and prison for older adults: invoking human rights and elder and intergenerational family justice.
Older adults in prison present a significant health and human rights challenge for the criminal justice system. To date, there is no known study that provides a comprehensive examination or portrait of older persons in prison. The purpose of this paper is to understand individual, family, system, and community vulnerabilities that can complicate successful community reintegration for these individuals. ⋯ The human rights implications for the current treatment of older adults in prison include providing in-prison treatment that promotes safety, well-being, reconciliation, and seamless bridges between prison and community for older adults and their families. The True Grit Program is presented as an example of a humanistic and holistic approach of such an approach.
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Indonesian law provides prisoners with basic rights, including access to education, health care and nutrition. Yet, structural and institutional limitations, notably overcrowding and under-resourcing, prohibits penal institutions from fulfilling these commitments for female prisoners. The purpose of this paper is to explore their health concerns. ⋯ This research is important in informing policy and practice. There is a clear need for gender-sensitive legislative frameworks, penal policies and prison rules to ensure women's needs are addressed. The identified coping strategies were considered viable, but do not replace the need for a health system providing women prisoners with levels of care as available in the community, including commensurate budgeting, personnel, access and referral to more specialised external health services.