Addressing Health Disparities Through Critical Health Literacy With Inmates

• In Event: Health Care Programs in Prisons

Abstract

Mass incarceration is a defining feature of life in the 21st-century U.S. The burden falls most heavily on racial minorities and men, who suffer disproportionately from many health problems, because, similar to imprisonment itself, health in the U.S. is not equally distributed. Mass incarceration and health disparities are rooted in the same structural determinants of minimal opportunity in housing, education, and employment common in U.S. society. Men with criminal justice histories, especially racial/ethnic minorities, have the least opportunity for overcoming these obstacles. Critical health literacy theory provides an intervention framework that has great potential for addressing health disparities faced by the vulnerable group of men incarcerated in the U.S. Our objective is to describe the Health, Activism, Literacy, and Opportunity (HALO) curriculum, which we developed and piloted, where men in short-term correctional facilities participated in a 12-hour critical health literacy intervention to learn about social determinants of health, how to identify their sources, assess the differential effects in their own and others’ lives, take action to address health disparities, and address their own health needs. We will discuss challenges and successes in implementing HALO in a county jail and provide resources for pedagogical and curriculum adaptation.

Authors

• Patricia Kelly, University of Missouri - Kansas City

• Megha Ramaswamy, University of Kansas School of Medicine