A Descriptive Exploratory Study of Health Promotion Among Men and Women Released from A County Detention Center
The national agenda, Healthy People 2020, continues to support and encourage public health of the American people through primary, secondary and tertiary goals of disease prevention (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2008). More than 10,000 men and women returning daily back to communities after release from county detention centers nationwide have health histories of infectious and chronic diseases, substance abuse, and mental health problems (National Commission on Correctional Healthcare, 2002). Studies that explore health promotion among the correctional population returning to communities are limited. Research questions for the study include: 1) How is health described by men and women recently released from an adult county detention center? 2) How do men and women experience health after recent release from an adult county detention center? 3) What personal strategies to promote, maintain or restore health are described by men and women released from an adult county detention center? 4) What personal, social or community factors influencing health promotion are described by men and women released from an adult county detention facility? 5) What barriers and facilitating influences to health promotion are described by men and women released from an adult county detention center? Thirty-five men and women were recruited from a day homeless shelter program and a community agency that provides vocational, educational services and community referral for men and women released from a county detention center. Each data collection site was located in different states in the mid-Atlantic region of the United States. A semi-structured interview guide and a demographic survey were used to obtain information from thirty -five men and women released from a county adult detention facility within last eighteen months. Each interview was tape-recorded, and transcribed. Demographic information was entered into SPSS software and an iterative coding process and content analysis was used with the assistance of analytical software. Results of the study suggest health promotion among men and women who have been recently released from a county detention facility occurs along a continuum - first unhealthy, then incarceration, then striving toward health, both mentally and physically. The overall theme was Health Promotion and A Time of Change. Five sub-themes contribute to this continuum of change that included 1) Toward a healthy me, 2) Continuing challenges - physical and / or mental health maintenance, 3) Changing Lifestyles - we want to be healthy, 4) Dealing with life on life's terms - resilience to adversity and 5) Survival -overcoming the obstacles. As an increasing number of men and women go through the doors of a county detention centers each year and return to communities' nationwide, factors that influence the health of this population has been largely unexamined. Nursing research that explores health and influencing factors associated with primary, secondary and tertiary health prevention among this returning population is important in ensuring return to, and maintenance of, health promotion for these individuals.
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