Project Description
Bringing Advanced Care Planning to Prisons
The number of persons dying in prison is growing,
driven by a precipitous rise in the number of older and seriously ill
prisoners. Over 75 prisons now have hospice units, but with over 2.000 U.S.
prisons, these hospices serve just a fraction of dying individuals. Palliative care - with its focus on establishing goals of
care and attention to quality of life throughout serious illness - is
frequently absent from prison healthcare outside of hospice. A cornerstone of
palliative care is Advanced Care Planning (ACP). ACP is used to identify
patients’ goals of care, clarify their definition of quality of life, and
ensure communication of their wishes to clinicians. In this Pilot Project we
will develop a model ACP Prison Program comprised of
clinician training and resources (written procedures and modified
evidence-based ACP tools) designed specifically for use in the unique prison
healthcare setting. Our long-term goal is to test and refine the model program
in prisons nationwide so that it can be disseminated to ensure that all
prisoners with serious illness or of advanced age have their healthcare wishes
elicited, understood, and followed.
Bio
Brie Williams, MD, MS, is
an Associate Professor of Medicine in the UCSF Division of
Geriatrics. Dr. Williams conducts transdisciplinary, policy-driven research
that applies palliative care and geriatrics paradigms to transform criminal
justice healthcare. She has published work calling for a more scientific
development of compassionate release policies; broader inclusion of prisoners
in NIH-funded health research; and improved systems for defining and responding
to disability, cognitive impairment, distressing symptomatology, and
multimorbidity in older and/or seriously ill prisoners. She is the
Founding Director of the University of California Criminal Justice
& Health Consortium, a UC-wide community of over 130
faculty and graduate students spanning 20 academic departments which brings
evidence-based healthcare solutions to criminal justice reform. In her role as
Associate Director of Tideswell at UCSF, Dr.
Williams directs the Criminal Justice Aging Project,
which develops and delivers geriatrics and palliative care training to criminal
justice professionals including police, correctional officers, judges,
attorneys, and clinicians.
Email: brie.williams@ucsf.edu