Clinical Ethics Consultations within the Incarcerated Population: A Single Center Retrospective Review
Thursday, October 12, 2023
9:45 AM – 11:00 AM ET
Location: Essex C (Fourth Floor)
Mass incarceration is pervasive in the United States and disproportionately impacts marginalized minority groups. It was only in the last 50 years that incarcerated individuals gained the constitutional right to health care and along with it came limitations that force clinicians to navigate unique medical, legal, and ethical issues. Despite the literature encouraging involvement of ethics committees for this population, little is known about the frequency and nature of ethics consultation for these patients. Most of the literature describing ethics involvement for these patients is expert opinion and there is a dearth of empirical knowledge. Therefore, we characterized the primary ethical issues and contextual features of adult and pediatric ethics consultations for patients at a single institution to determine the nature of ethical dilemmas and improve care for this vulnerable population.
In this presentation we report our findings and identify the range of ways incarceration status can impact patient care, medical decision making, intra-family and patient-team communication, and quality of life for this population. We then discuss the implications for clinical practice and make recommendations for education and pragmatic changes to better meet the needs of patients impacted by incarceration on the individual, team, and system level. Finally, we propose areas for future research and advocacy in correctional health.
Janice Firn – Clinical Ethicist, Center for Bioethics and Social Sciences in Medicine, University of Michigan