Health-care needs of older women prisoners: Perspectives of the health-care workers who care for them

ABSTRACT

The proportion of older incarcerated women is growing, yet little is known regarding their health-care needs. Using focus group methodology, this study sought to elucidate the unique health-care needs of older women prisoners through the perspectives of correctional health-care providers. Three organizing themes emerged regarding the health of older women prisoners: (a) the meaning of being “older” in the prison setting; (b) challenges impacting correctional health-care workers’ care delivery; and (c) unmet health-care-related needs. Correctional health-care workers’ insights can provide guidance regarding how to optimize the health of the increasing population of older women prisoners.

KEYWORDS:

• Aging
• correctional health
• prisoners
• women

Acknowledgments

The authors wish to thank Dr. Robert Trestman for reviewing a draft of the semistructured interview guide.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by a grant from the Center for Promotion of Health in the New England Workplace under grant number 2U19-OH0088857 (L. Barry) and the Connecticut Department of Corrections under grant number 2014CAU-61 (L. Barry). Dr. Barry is currently supported by R01 MH106529 and RF1 MH117604 from the National Institute of Mental Health.