title: Health Self-management Among Older Prisoners: Current Understandings and Directions for Policy, Practice, and Research.
abstract: The population of aging prisoners has increased significantly over the past several decades, resulting in concerns about the criminal justice system's ability to address the needs of prisoners and parolees with chronic health conditions. This is troubling, given the health disparities among incarcerated populations. Health self-management has become a strategy within the community-based health care industry to improve health services and outcomes while reducing health care costs for nonincarcerated individuals with chronic conditions. However, to date little research has focused on the practice or promotion of health self-management among current and former incarcerated populations. This article highlights current understandings about chronic health self-management among older prisoners and parolees, with an emphasis on the potential benefits and current challenges in promoting their health self-management practices. Finally, specific recommendations are made for promoting health self-management for these populations through social work practice, policy advocacy, and research to achieve goals in improving health outcomes and reducing healthcare costs.
authors.affiliation: a School of Social Work , University of Alabama , Tuscaloosa , Alabama , USA.
authors.forename: Nicole
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Ruggiano
authors.affiliation: b School of Social Work , Florida International University , Miami , Florida , USA.
authors.forename: Andreja
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Lukic
authors.affiliation: c Department of Criminal Justice & Criminology , University of North Carolina - Charlotte , Charlotte , North Carolina , USA.
authors.forename: Anita
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Blowers
authors.affiliation: d Department of Sociology & Anthropology , University of Rhode Island , Rhode Island , USA.
authors.forename: Jill
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Doerner
mesh_terms: D000375:Aging; D002908:Chronic Disease / Q000628:therapy*; D006291:Health Policy / Q000639:trends*; D006297:Health Services Accessibility / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006299:Health Services for the Aged / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006801:Humans; D011329:Prisoners / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011330:Prisons / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D000073278:Self-Management / Q000379:methods*
keywords: Chronic illness/disease; health disparities; health promotion; prisoners