Olds Jessica, Reilly Rachel, Yerrell Paul, Stajic Janet, Micklem Jasmine, Morey Kim, Brown Alex
Wardliparingga, South Australian Health and Medical Research Institute, Nort Terrace, 5000 Adelaide, Australia.
Wardliparingga, South Australian Health and Medical Research Institute, Nort Terrace, 5000 Adelaide, Australia ; Centre for Population Health Research, University of South Australia, Adelaide, Australia.
Health Justice. 2016;4:5. doi: 10.1186/s40352-016-0036-8. Epub 2016 May 3.
International frameworks supported by national principles in Australia stipulate that prisoners should be provided with health services equivalent to those provided in the general community. However, a number of barriers unique to the prison system may hinder the provision of equitable healthcare for this population. In Australia, Indigenous people carry a greater burden of cancer mortality, which the Cancer Data and Aboriginal Disparities (CanDAD) project is seeking to address. During the course of recruiting participants to the CanDAD study, Indigenous Australian prisoners with cancer emerged as an important, under-researched but difficult to access sub-group.
This scoping review sought to identify barriers and facilitators of access to adequate and equitable healthcare for Indigenous Australian prisoners with cancer in Australia. This review demonstrated a lack of research and, as such, the scoping review was extended to prisoners with cancer in Australia, New Zealand, the United States and Canada. This approach was taken in order to summarise the existing body of evidence regarding the barriers and facilitators of access to adequate and equitable healthcare for those who are incarcerated and suffering from cancer, and highlight areas that may require further investigation.
Eight studies or commentaries were found to meet the inclusion criteria. This limited set of findings pointed to a range of possible barriers faced by prisoners with cancer, including a tension between the prisons' concern with security versus the need for timely access to medical care.
Findings identified here offer potential starting points for research and policy development. Further research is needed to better elucidate how barriers to adequate cancer care for prisoners may be identified and overcome, in Australia and internationally. Furthermore, given Indigenous Australians' over-burden of cancer mortality and over-representation in the prison system, further research is needed to identify whether there are a unique set of barriers for this group.
澳大利亚以国家原则为支撑的国际框架规定，应向囚犯提供与普通社区相当的医疗服务。然而，监狱系统特有的一些障碍可能会妨碍为这一群体提供公平的医疗保健。在澳大利亚，原住民的癌症死亡率更高，癌症数据与原住民差异（CanDAD）项目正致力于解决这一问题。在招募CanDAD研究参与者的过程中，患有癌症的澳大利亚原住民囚犯成为一个重要但研究不足且难以接触到的亚群体。
本范围综述旨在确定澳大利亚患有癌症的原住民囚犯获得充分和公平医疗保健的障碍及促进因素。该综述表明相关研究匮乏，因此将范围综述扩展至澳大利亚、新西兰、美国和加拿大患有癌症的囚犯。采取这种方法是为了总结关于被监禁且患有癌症者获得充分和公平医疗保健的障碍及促进因素的现有证据，并突出可能需要进一步调查的领域。
发现八项研究或评论符合纳入标准。这一有限的研究结果指出了患有癌症的囚犯可能面临的一系列障碍，包括监狱在安全问题与及时获得医疗护理需求之间的矛盾。
此处确定的研究结果为研究和政策制定提供了潜在的起点。在澳大利亚和国际上，需要进一步开展研究，以更好地阐明如何识别和克服囚犯获得充分癌症护理的障碍。此外，鉴于澳大利亚原住民癌症死亡率过高且在监狱系统中所占比例过高，需要进一步研究以确定该群体是否存在一套独特的障碍。
