Healthcare Access

Many offenders have a high level and complexity of health needs, but often do not access healthcare until crisis point 

Our systematic review of the research literature identified the following barriers:

Barriers

L

Low levels of literacy and health literacy (Donnelle and Hall, 2014)

Complexity of offenders' health needs (NHS England, 2016)

Offenders often are not registered with GPs (Lang et al., 2014)

Inadequate service provision and commissioning not being informed by assessing offenders' health needs (Plugge et al., 2014; Marlow et al., 2010)

Financial barriers (Marlow et al., 2010; Owens et al., 2011)

Competing priorities such as a need for employment and housing make it hard to focus on health(Plugge et al., 2014)

Uncaring professional demeanour and stigma (Donnelle and Hall, 2014,Marlow et al., 2010)

References

• Donnelle, L., & Hall, J. (2014) An Exploration of Women Offenders' Health Literacy, Social Work in Public Health, 29: 240-251
  
• Plugge, E., Pari, A.A.A., Maxwell, J., & Holland, S. (2014) When prison is "easier": probationers' perceptions of health and wellbeing, International Journal of Prisoner Health, 10(1): 38-46
• Lang, N., Hillas, A., Mensah, M., Ryan, S., & Glass, L. (2014). Linking probation clients with mainstream health services: Experience in an outer London borough. Probation Journal, 61(3), 278–285
• Marlow, E., White, M. C., & Chesla, C. A. (2010). Barriers and Facilitators: Parolees’ Perceptions of Community Health Care. Journal of Correctional Health Care, 16(1), 17-26
• Owens, G.P., Rogers, S.M., and Whitesell, A.A. (2011) Use of mental health services and barriers to care for individuals on probation or parole, Journal of Offender Rehabilitation, 50: 37-47
• NHS England (2016) Strategic Direction for Health Services in the Justice System 2016-2020, London: NHS England