Corrections_Today_January_February_2020_Vol.82_No.1

Office of Correctional Health

Correctional Health perspectives

Complementary and alternative medicine in corrections How can we supplement treatment provided on the inside to increase compliance on the outside?

By Mike Miskell, MPH, CHES ®

W estern medicine has led to many beneficial advances to promote harm reduction and prolong life. Pharmaceuticals and surgical interventions can “fix” someone quickly and have a patient getting back to their normal routine at an incredibly faster pace than a century ago. Even a decade ago, for that matter. But at what cost do some of these options occur? That’s not meant to be figurative costs. There are literal, financial costs associated with modern medicine. Some public health systems, like state depart- ments of corrections, operate within a limited budget with minimal governmental support. On an annual or semiannual basis, correctional administrators must approach their state legislatures to support funding requests to ensure their inmate-pa- tients receive community standards of comprehensive healthcare. With budgets being tightened, correc- tional healthcare administrators

are expected to be doing more with less. This can lead to more scrutiny over utiliza- tion review, constant revisions of pharmacy formularies, and in- creased oversight of how every component of treatment is being delivered. This provides correctional agen- cies an opportunity to get creative with the different types of care

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CAM programs will benefit cor- rectional agencies financially and, more importantly, improve their inmate-patient medical and mental health. Inmate-patient population The incarcerated population housed in correctional facilities within the United States (U.S.) need more options to improve their overall

they’re able to provide and how they provide it. An option that has growing efficacy in the community are complementary and alternative medicines (CAM). This article provides CAM options and justifications for health- care administrators to consider as treatment and programming options for their inmate-patient popula- tion. The hope is that implementing

62 — January/February 2020 Corrections Today