Turner Mary, Chassagne Aline, Capelas Manuel Luis, Chambaere Kenneth, Panozzo Stacey, Teves Carla Marinho, Riegler Edith
School of Human and Health Sciences, University of Huddersfield, Huddersfield, UK
Clinical Investigation Centre, University of Burgundy Franche-comté, Besançon, France.
BMJ Support Palliat Care. 2021 Apr 22. doi: 10.1136/bmjspcare-2020-002701.
Prison populations around the world are ageing and numbers are rising, leading to greater demand for palliative care for prisoners approaching the end of life. This paper reports a survey that was undertaken by the European Association for Palliative Care Task Force on mapping palliative care provision for prisoners in Europe. The Task Force was established to begin to address the gap in research knowledge by exploring prison systems and care provision across different countries.
The survey, developed by the Task Force Steering Committee, consisted of 40 questions in six sections. It was completed through online searches; only data that were publicly available on the internet were included. Numerical data were analysed using descriptive statistics, and thematic comparisons were made of free-text data.
The survey was completed for eight countries: Australia, Belgium, Czech Republic, England and Wales, France, Portugal, Scotland and Slovakia. Three main findings are reported here: healthcare and palliative care provision in prisons, deaths in custody and compassionate release. Despite increasing numbers of older prisoners, relatively few prisons provide inpatient care, and only one country has any prisons that provide dedicated palliative care services. Early release on compassionate grounds is extremely rare in most countries.
For the principle of equivalence to be adhered to, facilities for sick and dying prisoners need to be improved, or many more people need to be released on compassionate grounds at the end of life. This mapping study has identified key issues in relation to palliative care in prison and provides the basis for further international research.
世界各地监狱人口正趋于老龄化且数量不断增加，这使得对临终囚犯的姑息治疗需求日益增大。本文报告了一项由欧洲姑息治疗协会特别工作组开展的调查，该调查旨在绘制欧洲监狱姑息治疗服务的提供情况。设立该特别工作组是为了通过探索不同国家的监狱系统和护理服务来填补研究知识方面的空白。
该调查由特别工作组指导委员会制定，包含六个部分的40个问题。通过在线搜索完成；仅纳入互联网上公开可得的数据。使用描述性统计分析数值数据，并对自由文本数据进行主题比较。
八个国家完成了该调查，分别是澳大利亚、比利时、捷克共和国、英格兰和威尔士、法国、葡萄牙、苏格兰和斯洛伐克。这里报告了三个主要结果：监狱中的医疗保健和姑息治疗服务、羁押期间死亡情况以及特许释放。尽管老年囚犯数量不断增加，但提供住院护理的监狱相对较少，且只有一个国家有提供专门姑息治疗服务的监狱。在大多数国家，基于同情理由的提前释放极为罕见。
为了坚持平等原则，需要改善患病和临终囚犯的设施，或者在临终时让更多人基于同情理由获释。这项映射研究确定了与监狱姑息治疗相关的关键问题，并为进一步的国际研究提供了基础。
