Explaining poor health-seeking among HIV-infected released prisoners

Author:

Bhushan Ambika,Brown Shan-Estelle,Marcus Ruthanne,Altice Frederick L

Abstract

Purpose – Little is understood about the self-described barriers that recently released HIV-infected prisoners face when accessing healthcare and adhering to medications. The purpose of this paper is to elucidate these barriers from the perspective of released prisoners themselves. Design/methodology/approach – A qualitative assessment using 30 semi-structured interviews explored individuals’ self-reported acute stressors and barriers to health-seeking during community re-integration for recidivist prisoners. Leventhal’s Self-Regulation Model of Illness (SRMI) is applied to examine both structural and psychological barriers. Findings – The SRMI explains that individuals have both cognitive and emotional processing elements to their illness representations, which mediate coping strategies. Cognitive representations of HIV that mediated treatment discontinuation included beliefs that HIV was stigmatizing, a death sentence, or had no physiological consequences. Negative emotional states of hopelessness and anger were either acute or chronic responses that impaired individuals’ motivation to seek care post-release. Individuals expressed feelings of mistrust, fatalism and denial as coping strategies in response to their illness, which reduced likelihood to seek HIV care. Originality/value – Interventions for HIV-infected individuals transitioning to the community must incorporate structural and psychological components. Structural support includes housing assistance, employment and health insurance, and linkage to mental health, substance abuse and HIV care. Psychological support includes training to enhance agency with medication self-administration and HIV education to correct false beliefs and reduce distress. Additionally, healthcare workers should be specifically trained to establish trust with these vulnerable populations.

Publisher

Emerald

Subject

Health Professions (miscellaneous)

同舟云学术

1.学者识别学者识别

2.学术分析学术分析

3.人才评估人才评估

"同舟云学术"是以全球学者为主线,采集、加工和组织学术论文而形成的新型学术文献查询和分析系统,可以对全球学者进行文献检索和人才价值评估。用户可以通过关注某些学科领域的顶尖人物而持续追踪该领域的学科进展和研究前沿。经过近期的数据扩容,当前同舟云学术共收录了国内外主流学术期刊6万余种,收集的期刊论文及会议论文总量共计约1.5亿篇,并以每天添加12000余篇中外论文的速度递增。我们也可以为用户提供个性化、定制化的学者数据。欢迎来电咨询!咨询电话:010-8811{复制后删除}0370

www.globalauthorid.com

TOP

Copyright © 2019-2024 北京同舟云网络信息技术有限公司
京公网安备11010802033243号  京ICP备18003416号-3