• To increase your understanding of the health risks associated with incarceration
• To recognise the barriers to addressing prisoners’ long-term healthcare needs
• To be aware of proactive health promotion initiatives within prisons
The prison population is disproportionately affected by risk factors for long-term conditions, has greater healthcare needs than the general population and is, overall, increasing and ageing. There are multiple challenges to the management of long-term conditions in prisons, including a disjointed healthcare system, a focus on security, a lack of health promotion, limited scope for prisoners to self-manage their conditions and limited budgets, staffing and training. However, a prison sentence can be an opportunity to improve access to treatment for long-term conditions for a disadvantaged and marginalised population. This article describes the challenges in the management of long-term conditions in prisons and discusses how these can be addressed through a more joined-up approach, better health promotion and prisoner engagement and improved staff training.
Primary Health Care. doi: 10.7748/phc.2024.e1837
Peer reviewThis article has been subject to external double-blind peer review and has been checked for plagiarism using automated software
Correspondence Conflict of interestNone declared
Guttridge H, McCloy O, Gettins C (2024) Addressing challenges in the management of long-term conditions in prisons. Primary Health Care. doi: 10.7748/phc.2024.e1837
Published online: 09 May 2024
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