Calling health promotion students, this training manual is a real-world example of how public health professionals can impact infectious disease and community health profiles through education and intervention the criminal justice system.
The prevalence of HIV/AIDS in jails and prisons is not surprisingly higher than found in the general population. Considering the close living quarters, substance use issues, and continuous cycling between correctional facilities and communities, it is imperative that jail and prison staff understand how they can contribute to abating the spread of infectious diseases.
Here is a training manual on HIV that is issued in New York to correctional officers. Even though the linkage between incarceratin and HIV incidence is well established, I am not sure how common this type of manual and training tool is in other states. Jail or prison is not a pleasant place to be, but the glass-half-full fact of the matter is that for some people it is an opportune window for providing medical attention and education. It's also a place where public health professionals should continue to speak up.
I will potentially be involved in a project this summer that will work toward reducing stigma toward HIV in prisons. As this post suggests, major targets for education would be prison staff, as they tend to be major contributors to stigmatization in the institutionalized context. The program also strives to help prisoners maintain connections with HIV clinics after they have been released.
ReplyDeleteO,
ReplyDeleteSounds like a great opportunity. I would like to hear more about this project for sure. Is this a Mailman-based project?
DHC
Its through the NY Psychiatric Institute, but the PIs work at the HIV Center on the 3rd floor. I just interviewed for it yesterday, but I will let you know when I learn more about it
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