Improving Primary Care Services for Imprisoned Women with SMI

• Research type

  Research Study

• Full title

  Improving Services for Imprisoned Women with Severe Mental Illness (IPSIS)

• IRAS ID

  342813

• Contact name

  Tammi Walker

• Contact email

  tammi.walker@durham.ac.uk

• Sponsor organisation

  Durham University

• Duration of Study in the UK

  1 years, 6 months, 2 days

• Research summary

  Background:
  Severe Mental Illness (SMI) (such as psychosis) impacts on how imprisoned women seek help for health problems. Individuals with SMI are more likely to have obesity, diabetes and heart disease which lead to reduced life expectancy and poor quality of life. Little is known about how imprisoned women with SMI use healthcare services, and how these services are experienced by women from different ethnic groups.

  Aims:
  We want to find out which physical healthcare services are offered to imprisoned women with SMI across different ethnic groups. We will describe the experiences of imprisoned women with SMI, prison staff and primary care practitioners of health services, and find out what is and is not working in the provision of healthcare for this vulnerable group of women. We will develop a framework for imprisoned women with SMI, which is sensitive to race and culture, and addresses health inequalities.

  Research design:
  Three phases. We will apply a qualitative research design over an 18-month period using semi-structured and telephone interviews and focus groups.

  Study setting:
  We will carry out the research with imprisoned women with a history of SMI, (defined as psychotic illness, bipolar disorder, women on antipsychotic medication) primary care, and prison staff across female prisons in England (none exist in Wales).

  Data Collection:
  Phase 1: Semi-structured telephone interviews with primary care practitioners in prisons.
  Phase 2: Focus groups with imprisoned women with a history of SMI.
  Phase 3: Focus groups with health and non-clinical prison staff.

• REC name

  East Midlands - Nottingham 2 Research Ethics Committee

• REC reference

  24/EM/0286

• Date of REC Opinion

  13 Aug 2024

• REC opinion

  Favourable Opinion