NEW WEB RESOURCE LAUNCHED
June 2002

Understanding Prison Health Care: Fostering Competence
and Compassion in
Treating Prisoners

-- organized by Melissa Minor, MD
(funded by the Arts and Humanities Medical Scholars
Program at Stanford
School of Medicine)

http://movementbuilding.org/prisonhealth

This educational web site uses narratives and artistic
works to foster
competence, compassion and activism in medically
treating prisoner
patients, a patient population that has traditionally
been overlooked in
medical education and marginalized in clinical
practice. It is meant to
inform, educate and challenge personal biases toward
caring for prisoner
patients. Without an understanding of prison health
care issues, it is
difficult to provide competent and compassionate care
to prisoners, or any
other culturally disenfranchised population.

Each page is devoted to a particular topic on prison
health care. On each
page is a collection of artwork done by prison artists
or community
activist artists (with links to the source when
available). Additionally,
at the bottom of each page you can hear the opinions of
various experts in
prison health care and prison rights (including
physicians, advocates,
community educators, lawyers and prisoners themselves).

Excerpts from the "Advocacy" and "Needed Changes"
sections:

"Health care workers have a responsibility to advocate
for the health and
well being of their patients. Advocacy may take many
forms, including
educating a patient about diseases and disease
prevention, speaking up for
a patient when they may be unable to do so and
lessening barriers to
accessing health care. The role of advocacy is even
more essential and
influential when advocating for the health care rights
of prisoners. As
prisoners are in a relatively powerless position during
incarceration, they
often do not have the liberty of voicing their opinions
for fear of
retribution. They also near lack any ability to
mobilize change in the
prison system. Consequently, health advocacy is often
in the hands of the
health care professionals who treat prisoner patients."

"Numerous changes in prison policy, programs and
procedures are necessary
if health care in prisons is to improve. Many of these
changes must occur
within the prison institution to strengthen prisoner
access to health care
(urgent care, preventive care, chronic care, specialty
care) and health
education materials. Other institutional changes must
address the issues of
assuring patient confidentiality, facilitating
prisoners in taking
partnership in their health care decisions and
providing continuity of
follow-up care, especially when an outside physicians
is consulted."