{
  "abstract": "Description Prison health care is notorious for dysfunctional organization, limited resources, lack of health care standards, and poor health outcomes despite being the only population in the U.S. with a constitutional right to health care. California Prison Health Care services was taken over by a Federal Receiver in 2006, which has improved many of these issues. Despite these changes, distrust and miscommunication continue to affect health care outcomes. San Quentin Rehabilitation Center (SQRC) has hired 30 Peer Support Specialists (PSS) and has created several initiatives to work with our most frustrating health care issues at the facility.At SQRC, many of the Peer Support Specialists were hired as a continuation of a literacy program. PSS have been able to translate the distrust and logistics not imagined with usual quality improvement (QI) projects for communication around all the consequences of health care decisions. As an example, through holding educational town halls, small groups and individual contacts with incarcerated persons (IPs) in one housing unit, the PSS were able to increase the percentage of IPs with completed Advance Directives from 8% to 26% over 8 months while other housing units saw little to no gains. Additionally, PSS translate the health care goals for the consumers so they can understand the perspectives and needs of the health care staff. PSS are able to identify creative and resource limited solutions to many of our strategies. A PSSP program can easily be generalized for all health care organizations, particularly those who serve underserved populations.",
  "authors": [
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "San Quentin Rehabilitation Center"
      ],
      "name": "Elena Tootell"
    },
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "San Quentin Rehabilitation Center"
      ],
      "name": "Alison Pachynski"
    },
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "San Quentin Rehabilitation Center"
      ],
      "name": "Cojo Clutchette"
    },
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "San Quentin Rehabilitation Center"
      ],
      "name": "Justin Wharton"
    }
  ],
  "title": "13 Cultural competence is a 2-way street; peer support specialists in a carceral setting",
  "uid": "2077f0ad-495d-5e6c-8e58-1c32314c3d5e"
}