Nursing Publications

Health Access of Women in Provincial Correctional Institutions

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

1-1-2021

Journal

Social Work in Public Health

Volume

36

Issue

2

First Page

232

Last Page

245

URL with Digital Object Identifier

10.1080/19371918.2020.1864556

Abstract

Historically, there has been a disparity between men and women rates of incarceration, even though there has been a significant increase in the number of women imprisoned over the past 20 years, globally. Women have unique health care needs that are often not adequately addressed within the correctional institutions in which they are held. The focus of this study was to explore women’s experiences when accessing health services within Canadian provincial correctional institutions. Narrative inquiry was used to investigate the life stories of five women who accessed health care in provincial correctional institutions. A total of two storylines and five sub-storylines resulted from the analysis of interviews conducted with the participants. The findings suggest that during incarceration, participants experienced compromising conditions that contributed to the worsening of their health, and faced difficulties accessing their prescribed treatments and medications. Consequently, this contributed to the worsening of their physical and mental wellbeing.

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