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Wolfson Research Institute for Health and Wellbeing
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Study Showcase: Improving Primary Care Services for Imprisoned with Serious Mental Illness (IP-SIS) Study

20 January 2025
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We do not know whether women with serious mental illness in prison access primary care services. We would like to understand more about this. Hardly any evidence exists about how imprisoned women with SMI use primary care services. These services include general practice, dentists, eye health (opticians) and pharmacists. We want to find out how such services meet their healthcare needs and how these experiences are racially differentiated. This Study is led by WRIHW Fellow Prof Tammi Walker.

There is a gap in existing physical healthcare provision for women with Severe Mental Illness (SMI), including racially minoritised women, in prison and on release to mainstream primary care. Women in such settings tend to have complex mental health problems, often with comorbid physical health problems. The prison regime can be a barrier to addressing the health needs of women: low prison staffing levels and time available out of cell. Little is known about how imprisoned women with SMI use primary care services, to what extent services are meeting health care needs, and how these services are experienced by different racial groups.

Aims:

  1. To explore the range of primary care services delivered to imprisoned women with severe mental illness (SMI) in England and describe what is working well and the barriers to accessing care.
  2. To develop a framework for use in women’s prison services to support the primary care of racially minoritised women with SMI.

 

For more information on this study please visit this link.