After a brief history of corrections is presented, the current state of correctional system in the US and its impact on the overall health of our communities is discussed in general and with respect to the ongoing social and health inequalities among the racial minorities.

Educational Objectives:

Review the history of corrections

Describe the impact of corrections on marginalized communities

Explore the impact of corrections on the social determinants of health

Level: Basic

Of the 1.5 million adults residing in state and federal prisons, the 55-plus demographic accounts for about 12% - a 300% spike in the elderly population since 1999. As this population ages, nurses may be the first to recognize signs of a patient's decline. Care for these patients can be frustrating and difficult. This session will describe recognition, nursing care challenges, and advocacy issues related to dementia and Alzheimer's patients.

Educational Objectives:

Define diseases characterized by a decline in a person's ability to perform activities of daily living

Review symptoms of diseases that affect a person's ability to perform activities of daily living

Describe nursing care for this population of patients

Level: Basic

While trauma programs have much to offer the incarcerated, the prison setting itself is inherently triggering and retraumatizing. For the past decade, the Northeast Reintegration Center has overcome many of these issues with the Mosaic program, a comprehensive trauma treatment intervention. Presenters will identify critical issues for designing, planning, executing, and sustaining this program as well as strategies to build and maintain support for trauma treatment among prison staff and leadership.

Educational Objectives:

Identify the key elements of effective trauma recovery programs for incarcerated women

Describe the therapeutic framework for selecting interventions and implementing treatment

Define strategies to build support among prison staff and leadership to ensure success

Level: Intermediate

Cancelled

This project recruited justice involved individuals aged 18-26 for community re-entry. They were assessed to identify their unmet needs. They received two evidenced based programs. They were assessed and linked to community agencies for identified needs. Developmental and cultural factors were barriers to community linkages. These include cultural norms and developmental factors which affected their participation. This presentation will explore the constellation of individual and group attitudes and beliefs that were barriers to reentry.

Educational Objectives:

Identify challenges to successful community reentry for justice-involved young adults

Discuss attitudes and beliefs that may influence young adults from completing reentry tasks

Review strategies to address factors associated with age that may reduce these barriers

Level: Basic

This presentation will review trends in oral health and systemic health in the correctional population over time. Dental treatment of medically compromised patients, especially those in the geriatric population, can be a daunting challenge. Attendees will learn how systemic illnesses and the medications used in their treatment impact oral health and influence the course of dental treatment.

Educational Objectives:

Discuss trends in oral health and systemic health in the correctional population

List the most common systemic illnesses and their impact on oral health and dental treatment

Review best practices in treating the geriatric correctional patient

Administrators face limited resources, grievances, and ongoing litigation concerns when trying to provide good health care for their patient population. A well-managed, organized health care system empowers administrators and staff with the knowledge to respond to and minimize these challenges. NCCHC’s Standards for Health Services are recognized by the medical profession and courts as the benchmark for establishing and measuring a correctional health services system. This session will share tips for using the Standards to strengthen the delivery system, ensure quality of care, and achieve accreditation.

 Educational objectives

• Review the legal context of accreditation
• Describe how use of NCCHC standards can ensure constitutional care is delivered
• Discuss how to use the Standards for Health Services to prepare for accreditation

Level: Basic

The Fairfax County Adult Detention Center will share details on its implementation of medication-assisted treatment. Key components include leadership commitment, workforce development, changes to policies and protocols, pharmacy operations, medication administration, screening at booking, continuous quality improvement, data, and evaluation, peer support, and vital reentry supports. Learn how the Center experienced an organizational culture change that has created better outcomes for people who are at risk for recidivism and overdose.

Educational Objectives:

Review how evidence-based practices have been vital to the change process

Analyze key initiatives that may be replicable in each attendee's own service system

Discuss attitudes and beliefs about substance use disorders and how they impact treatment strategies

Level: Intermediate

Corrections can learn from other health systems the value of effective nursing leadership in driving health care culture, operational effectiveness, improved patient outcomes, and professional practice. How can strong nursing leadership affect correctional health? What does transformational leadership look like in the justice environment and how can it move correctional health forward? Participants will contribute to the development of a blueprint for transforming the future of correctional nursing.

Educational Objectives:

Identify two benefits of investing in a transformational nurse leader

Distinguish four ways effective nurse leaders contribute to better patient outcomes

Construct two action initiatives toward development of a blueprint for transforming the future of correctional nursing

Level: Intermediate

Patients diagnosed with antisocial personality disorder inflict more harm upon society than those suffering from any other mental disorder. The session offers a detailed examination of the current and proposed diagnostic criteria for the disorder and belief systems and thinking styles associated with ASPD. Attendees will learn about five evidence-based treatments and, using case studies and role replays, practice strategies for managing patients resistance to treatment.

Educational Objectives:

Restate the eight primary criminal thinking patterns described by Walters

Describe the central concepts and key interventions associated with evidence-based treatments for ASPD

Identify four strategies for managing patient resistance to treatment

Level: Intermediate

When a health care surrogate is selected by the patient or appointed by a court, they have legal rights and obligations that impact your practice. Using real world examples, we will explore how interaction with a health care substitute can benefit the provider and result in the best patient outcomes and, conversely, how to handle a proxy who does not act in the best interests of the incarcerated individual. Learn how to recognize when your patient needs a surrogate and how to obtain one.

Educational Objectives:

Outline the legal principals underlying the right to make our own medical decisions

Explain the differences between health care surrogates who are selected by the patient versus appointed by a court

Discuss how to recognize when a patient needs a health care surrogate and how to obtain one

Level: Intermediate

Prison Terminal: The Last Days of Private Jack Hall is an Oscar-nominated documentary that breaks through the walls of one of America's oldest maximum security prisons to tell the story of the final months in the life of a terminally ill prisoner and the hospice volunteers, themselves prisoners, who care for him. The documentary provides a fascinating and poignant account of how the hospice experience profoundly touches even the forsaken lives of the incarcerated.

Educational Objectives:

Describe the potential benefits of hospice for the terminally ill prisoner, the prisoner hospice volunteer and the family of the terminally ill prisoner

Review the technical, logistical and sociopolitical difficulties in setting up a prison-based, prisoner-run hospice program in a maximum security prison

Differentiate between the care provided by trained prisoner hospice volunteers and the nonhospice, noncorrectional alternative

Level: Basic

This roundtable will define racial trauma and identify culturally specific ways in which it presents itself among African Americans. We will highlight Critical Race Theory (CRT) which addresses evidence-based practices for treating racial trauma among incarcerated individuals through storytelling and challenging dominate trauma narratives. Participants can expect an interactive experience coupled with an authentic, safe place to discuss racial trauma.

Educational Objectives:

Define racial trauma and identify specific communities that have been impacted by racial trauma.    

Describe three ways in which racial trauma presents itself in the African American community    

Identify two effective strategies for addressing racial trauma in a correctional setting

Level: Intermediate
 

Off-site specialty care is a much needed complement to the care we deliver. But it does have challenges, including services coveted by the patient, public safety risk, and cost. The speaker will deconstruct the referral writing process to get a better understanding of what we’re asking for and why. Then she will write the optimal referral that will soar through any review process and give specialists what they need to
help us take care of the patient. 
Educational objectives
• Identify appropriate and inappropriate reasons to refer out for a specialty service
• Describe components of a well written, thought out, clear, concise referral
• Discuss medical and legal obligations to following (or not following) specialist recommendations

Level: Intermediate

People entering correctional facilities present actual and potential medical, dental, and psychological issues that may affect their well-being while in custody. This talk will discuss the importance of accurate and comprehensive receiving screening in providing quality care and reducing bad patient outcomes, transmission of infectious diseases, and liability. It will address referrals to providers, documentation and observations noted, and appropriate housing of inmates.

Educational Objectives:

State the importance of obtaining accurate and comprehensive health information at admission

Describe the proper documentation of all information gathered and all observations

Discuss proper provider referrals and housing decisions based on findings from the receiving screening

Level: Basic

Correctional mental health clinicians are routinely faced with highly complex clinical presentations and behavioral disorders that challenge traditional evidence-based psychotherapy approaches. Recent scholarship has produced curricula aimed at the especially complex correctional clinical patient population. This presentation will discuss the theoretical construct of "criminalness" as a therapeutic target and review new curricula that support effective treatment programs. Combining theory and real-life experiences, the presenters will report on "lessons learned" from implementation of these curricula.

Educational Objectives:

Define "criminalness"

Summarize the "Changing Lives, Changing Outcomes" and "Stepping Up, Stepping Out" curricula

Discuss lessons learned in implementation

Level: Intermediate

This session will explore secondary trauma as it affects correctional health care staff and supervisors. Learn the signs and symptoms of internal and external stressors, anxiety, secondary (vicarious) trauma, and compassion fatigue. The experience of secondary trauma and limited emotional and professional space to process these experiences can significantly affect team effectiveness and patient care. Attendees will discover interventions for individuals and teams for developing stress management coping skills.

Educational Objectives:

Differentiate the signs and symptoms of compassion fatigue, secondary/vicarious trauma, and burnout

Examine how personality and interpersonal relationships can reduce or reinforce stress

List healthy ways to manage and/or adapt to stress

Level: Basic

Health care executives—including those with responsibilities in the correctional environment—perform critical functions in the textbook areas of finance, human resources, customer service, etc. But today’s successful executive must be agile, creative, empathetic, and culturally aware. With the shocks of a pandemic, national awareness of racial injustice, and increased emphasis on health care quality for the incarcerated, health systems leaders’ competency is being tested. This panel will discuss ways to meet challenges in health care quality, value-based care, standards of care, and the relationship among public health, health care quality, and social justice.

Educational Objectives:

Describe how to use common measures of health care quality and value-based care in a correctional environment

Explain how traditional areas of health care quality can synergize with social justice and reimagining corrections and incarceration

Discuss how the courts shape the standards of care in a correctional environment in comparison to those in the community

Level: Intermediate

Studies have shown that at least 20% of youth entering the justice system have a mental health problem, with a majority also experiencing a co-occurring substance use disorder. These youth pose particular behavior management challenges and frequently have conduct problems like verbal threats, self-harm, noncompliance, and property destruction. This session will share restorative justice approaches that are effective alternatives to punitive discipline and behavior management strategies focused on building relationships and reconciliation.

Educational Objectives:

Recognize the importance of effective behavior management strategies in juvenile correctional facilities

Describe the main components of restorative justice

Examine the benefits of using restorative justice as a behavior management strategy

Level: Basic

Human trafficking is a growing reality in many communities and, unfortunately, correctional institutions are a primary recruitment venue. Many victims suffer from serious mental and medical health conditions, lack trusting relationships, and are reluctant to self-identify as a victim. They cycle in and out of correctional systems on prostitution and drug-related charges. This session will help staff address this issue by instituting policies, training, and other interventions that help break the cycle of victimization.

Educational Objectives:

Review ways to identify suspected human trafficking victims

Describe the health effects of human trafficking

List interventions to effectively address human trafficking

Level: Basic

This session will describe how pregnant incarcerated women should be considered as high risk obstetrical individuals regarding their prenatal care. This view should be universal regardless of the woman’s age and overall medical health and wellness. The unique hurdles of being incarcerated including isolation from family and friends, inability for full mobility, stigma of being in prison, lack of privacy, and sociopsychological concerns add risk to the mother and her fetus. The NJ Commission for Women’s Reentry Health Committee is creating templates to uniformly address these prenatal needs.

Learning Objectives:

Review the unique needs of pregnant incarcerated women    

Describe the reasons that pregnancy while in prison should be considered high risk 

Explore steps to take to enhance prenatal care
 

Level: Advanced

Chronic care is essential in a correctional facility but can be one of the biggest challenges, with a never-ending workload, tracking challenges, and ineffective reactive care. Integrating a clinical pharmacist into the chronic care team can streamline the process, improve patient outcomes, and lead to a proactive model of care. This session will review such a program and highlight the benefits of comprehensive medication management with a technology approach.

Educational Objectives:

Identify the inefficiencies associated with a traditional chronic care model in correctional health care

Discuss the use of technological surveillance to improve clinical outcomes and institutional safety for patients

Assess the impact of clinical pharmacist integration into the chronic care team in terms of provider productivity, patient outcomes, adherence to clinical guidelines, and data tracking

Level: Intermediate

Correctional officers are often ill-prepared for the challenges posed by the soaring number of mentally ill individuals in their institutions, so training is essential. The presenter will discuss a crisis intervention training curriculum developed for the National Institute of Corrections that resulted in reductions in the use of force by up to 70%, dramatic decreases in assaults on staff, and significant decreases in the use of restraints and seclusion.

Educational Objectives:

Explain the crisis intervention training approach to mental health and suicide awareness training for correctional officers

Review strategies for securing participants' active engagement in learning

Restate favorable outcomes of CIT training with correctional officers

Level: Basic

Health care professionals often provide sworn testimony in civil and criminal matters. Learn how your testimony could be used and how poor testimony can lead to litigation problems. The presentation will help prepare clinicians for providing testimony and how to avoid pitfalls. Common denominators in accurate sworn testimony involve confidence, respect, and preparation.

Educational Objectives:

State different ways that sworn testimony can be used

Discuss how to properly prepare to provide sworn testimony

List common problems that lead to poor litigation outcomes

Level: Intermediate

The state public health department and Kansas Department of Corrections identified and contained a rapidly spreading variant strain of COVID. Testing identified only one case of the novel strain in surrounding communities. While the identification of a novel strain is significant, the success of mitigation efforts is more important. Learn how staff successfully contained the outbreak and which infection control methods were most effective in protecting patients, staff, and the community.

Educational Objectives:

Evaluate various testing strategies for outbreak conditions, endemic illnesses, and pandemic conditions

Illustrate outbreak investigation principles central to any public health response

Compare the effectiveness of various infection control strategies to respond to an outbreak

Level: Basic

Alternatives to incarceration and reentry planning have a significant impact on correctional health operations. Evidence-informed collaborative approaches help facilitate substance use treatment, mental health, and nursing home placements after or in lieu of incarceration. This presentation will discuss collaborative approaches to identify high-risk patients with complex care needs and address health and social service needs to support improved health outcomes

Educational Objectives:

Review key information and screenings to inform best practices

Describe various workflows and the benefits of a correctional health liaison to court advocates

Discuss outcomes and benefits, particularly related to public health

Level: Intermediate

The presentation will review the basics of MAT selection, diagnostic criteria, treatment initiation, management, and discontinuation. The presenter will also discuss urine drug screen interpretation, support services to enhance success, and federal OTP regulations. Get invaluable information from this comprehensive overview of MAT therapy and support services from the beginner's perspective.

Educational Objectives:

Summarize the basics of three medications used for MAT, including prescribing and licensing requirements

Explain how to interpret drug testing results

Analyze common issues that can adversely impact successful treatment

Level: Basic

Health staff often encounter incarcerated people under stressful conditions when the patient is upset, frightened or hostile. During this session, you will be provided an opportunity to look at patient conflicts creatively, remain under emotional control during disagreements, find solutions to potentially difficult situations, and maintain professionalism in any patient encounter. This overview will give you an option on how to tactically communicate with the incarcerated to achieve voluntary compliance while maintaining professionalism, self-control and personal safely.

Educational Objectives:

Learn how to prevent patient confrontations from becoming unsafe or dangerous
Recognize the impact your comments can have on the incarcerated during patient contacts
How to build rapport with your patients and create a successful and positive encounter

Level: Basic

This presentation will bring attention to "diagnosis inertia" related to COPD and other significant diagnoses during the intake process to promote critical thinking by clinicians when seeing patients for the first time and developing a treatment plan. Get insights into the importance of information from outside medical records and patients' self-reported histories before you establish a definitive plan of care.

Educational Objectives:

Express the need to confirm diagnosis prior to initiating long-term treatment plans

Explain the need to critically evaluate medications related to the presenting diagnosis

Review the need for follow-up related to the presenting diagnosis

Level: Basic

Using data on the most common reasons for nursing board disciplinary action and the top nursing liability claims, this talk will enable correctional nurses to examine their own nursing practice and identify areas of concern. Key to this is determining one's scope of practice and how the nursing process is integral to practicing within that scope. Topics include policies and procedures, national standards, documentation, continuing education, and conflicts between scope of practice and actual clinical practice.

Educational Objectives:

Outline nursing scope of practice for LPNs, RNs, and APRNs

State three reasons why adherence to the nursing process protects nursing practice

Identify two ways that training and continuing education protects correctional nursing practice

Level: Basic

Clozapine is the only medication approved for treatment-resistant schizophrenia and suicide prevention yet is markedly underused in prison systems. There is also an emerging evidence base from prisons showing that clozapine reduces self-injurious behavior, aggression, infractions, and time assigned to disciplinary segregation. This presentation will review clozapine's benefits, discuss barriers to use in corrections, and present practical solutions on how to expand use in a prison system.

Educational Objectives:

List three potential benefits of clozapine use in correctional settings

Identify three barriers to clozapine use in correctional systems

Describe the mechanics of a clozapine consultative system and how this may help expand prescribing

Level: Intermediate

A standardized medical diet program helps maintain optimal health status of incarcerated people, ensures compliance, and eliminates diet issues that can increase costs. Communication between medical and the food service department is the key to the success of a standardized medical diet program. This presentation will identify the key points in a medical diet program, explaining the process from the diet order to the meal served and incorporating compliance guidelines.

Educational Objectives:

Review why standardization improves compliance and controls cost

Summarize the medical diet process from prescription to consumption

Describe valid diets and their rationale associated with disease states

Level: Basic

The World Health Organization defines social determinants of health as “conditions in which people are born, grow, work, live, and age, and the wider set of forces and systems shaping the conditions of daily life.” Attendees will learn about SDOH and how to assess for them in the incarcerated population. This information can support successful reentry by identifying services individuals might need to mitigate the impact of SDOH after discharge.

Educational Objectives:

Define social determinants of health

Identify trends in assessment of SDOH in various health care settings

Demonstrate three ways that SDOH data can be used to create value-based health care outcomes

Level: Basic

Individuals with trauma histories have difficulty self-regulating. Self-soothing deficits can result in significant distress and reliance on unhealthy coping skills to manage trauma symptoms, including engaging in self-injurious behavior. Research has shown that yoga and mindfulness practices are effective strategies to help manage trauma symptoms and support self-regulation. The session reviews relevant research and offers practical suggestions on how to include yoga and mindfulness in clinical practice in correctional environments.

Educational Objectives:

Examine the research supporting the clinical application of yoga and mindfulness

List the benefits of yoga and mindfulness in the treatment of incarcerated individuals with trauma histories

Identify ways to integrate yoga and mindfulness in treatment planning and clinical practice

Level: Basic

Using a case study, this session will help you explore the risks in your practice setting and how to mitigate them. After introduction of the case facts, we will discuss the legal claims, alleged medical errors, and system failures. Come prepared to debate which elements of the case created the most risk and which could have been avoided with better checks and balances. We conclude with a discussion of best practices based on participant experiences.

Educational Objectives:

State the elements and varying burdens of proof for deliberate indifference and medical negligence suits

Discuss the legal risks inherent in each human and systematic failure that led to the adverse patient outcome

Review how other systems have tackled similar challenges

Level: Intermediate

Youth in juvenile justice systems often mirror the health disparities and social determinants of health found in the community. There are opportunities to reduce or eliminate health disparities while in the correctional system while appreciating how the social determinants of health impact maturation. Health professionals can be key to engaging social justice as part of a plan of care.

Educational Objectives:

Describe the health inequities, health disparities, and social determinants of health that impact youth in the justice system

Identify opportunities for health staff to positively address health disparities

Demonstrate how to implement a health care program with a social justice focus

Level: Intermediate

With a new publisher in 2021, NCCHC’s peer-reviewed professional journal is growing, improving, and reaching out to the correctional health care field to better serve its needs. Attend this session to learn what’s new and how you can get involved. In this talk, JCHC’s editor will review its historical context; describe the periodical’s mission, target audience, and content areas; outline the key steps in developing and writing a manuscript; and explain the peer review, acceptance, and publication processes.

Educational Objectives:

Describe the Journal, including its mission, audience, and content

Identify key steps in developing and publishing a manuscript

Explain the importance and process of peer review

Level: Basic

Nurses and Mental Health Workers have the exact same same goal for our patients - quality care. Why then, do we sometimes seem to be at odds with each other? Using an interactive model, this session delves into case scenarios, perceived responsibilities and the minds of both disciplines. Shedding light on how and why individual disciplines approach the same issues differently, new and modified approaches between these two very critical patient care disciplines will evolve. The anticipated outcome the ability to achieve shared goals in the delivery of quality patient care in a cohesive, harmonious, team-oriented environment.

Educational Objectives:

Verbalize common issues that create disharmony between nurses and mental health workers.
Analyze four case studies involving conflict between nurses and mental health workers
Demonstrate the application of learned skills and knowledge in the workplace
 

Level: Intermediate

During the COVID-19 outbreak, California Correctional Healthcare Service and California Hospital Association collaborated to redirect doses of monoclonal antibody to correctional facilities to treat high-risk patients who had contracted COVID-19. Providers found a decrease in severity of disease, hospitalization, and death. Learn when treatment with monoclonal antibody is indicated for COVID-19, and how to identify appropriate patients, obtain informed consent, safely infuse, and monitor this high-risk population.

Educational Objectives:

Identify eligible high-risk patients with COVID-19 who would benefit from IV monoclonal antibodies

Demonstrate understanding of the consent, treatment, and monitoring requirements for the use of monoclonal antibodies

Analyze the essential interdisciplinary processes needed to support the use of IV monoclonal antibody treatment in corrections

Level: Intermediate

An environment that supports professional practice is arguably the most important factor to achieve better staffing, better patient outcomes, and higher staff and patient satisfaction. Many nurse managers implement components to improve practice yet struggle to obtain the outcomes they seek for creating a culture of clinical excellence. Research examines drivers of clinical excellence and translates the significance of professional practice models to correctional nursing. Learn how to lead to improve staff retention and patient care.

Educational Objectives:

Identify your professional practice framework to analyze a challenge to a high-performance nursing workforce

Link the six common components of a PPM to the formulated framework

Discuss potential strategies to shape meaningful work for nurses in corrections

Level: Intermediate

Presenters will describe and define how they implemented Trauma-Informed care, the challenges they overcame to have Montana's best outcome for success in regards to recidivism rates. Presenters will define how they implemented SAMHSA guidelines in the environment of incarceration. Presenters will show the pitfalls to avoid.

Educational Objectives:

Identify physiological signs of trauma

Differentiate between behaviors related to trauma and behaviors related to criminal thinking

Analyze how to integrate current policies with a trauma-informed approach

Level: Basic

This presentation will identify behavioral health, medical, and law enforcement issues regarding domestic minor sex trafficking with a focus on risk factors, identification, treatment, prevention, and advocacy. Case studies will address the psychological impact, individual and group treatment for patients experiencing symptoms associated with their DMST involvement, the crucial practice-based skill of identifying and recognizing DMST involvement, the larger legal and policy/advocacy-based context of DMST, and the role of behavioral health professionals.

Educational Objectives:

Recognize the presentation, medical, and psychological effects of domestic minor sex trafficking

Discuss ways to identify and respond to adolescent patients involved in DMST, including treatment that is developmentally appropriate and trauma-responsive

Describe the role of behavioral health professionals in facilitating the interdisciplinary approach and advocacy needed to optimize prevention, treatment, and recovery

Level: Basic

Teamwork, dedication, and commitment: all successful operations have these. But what secret sauce makes the 2020 and 2021 Programs and Facilities of the Year, and our recognized leaders truly great? Jim Martin moderates a panel of award winners and leaders to answer these questions and more. Learn how leaders encourage a positive culture and nurture cross-disciplinary communications, and how the best facilities overcome challenges that overwhelm other facilities. Panelists will share insights into what makes their facilities unique, how they developed their award-winning programs, and what lessons others seeking to improve can draw.

Educational objectives
Identify methods to build staff morale and cooperation
Discuss how successful health care operations overcome
barriers to care
Describe a process to encourage staff innovation

Some lectures address tips for testifying at deposition and others about how trials proceed; this mock trial explores both and demonstrates how the two are interrelated. Real-life health care defense attorneys play the roles of the lawyers and health care providers serve as the witnesses to provide a interactive experience of deposition and trial testimony.

Educational Objectives:

Describe the purpose and key characteristics of a deposition of a defendant

Examine problematic testimony and its effects on the trial

Discuss the role of the jury in deciding both liability and damages

Level: Basic

Engaging with individuals who act violently or have experienced trauma can cause secondary and vicarious trauma. Such trauma can be insidious, affecting us psychologically and physically, and may result from a one-time encounter or from cumulative exposure to incarcerated individuals' traumas. Clinicians have an ethical responsibility to recognize the signs of trauma in themselves and their colleagues. This session will describe secondary and vicarious trauma, how to recognize their effects, and how to reduce their impact on ourselves and our patients.

Educational Objectives:

Identify secondary and vicarious trauma

Describe the effects of secondary and vicarious trauma

State how to cope with their impact on correctional health care work

Level: Intermediate

Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death for incarcerated individuals. Unfortunately, heart failure is a challenge for clinicians to accurately manage, even as more research and drug therapy becomes available. We will review the recently updated 2021 ACC/AHA clinical practice guidelines, review landmark clinical trials, and highlight new and emerging therapies in heart failure. Learn how to integrate a new evidence-based standard of care and best practices into your treatment of heart failure.

Educational Objectives:

Distinguish between established heart failure therapies for reduced (HFrEF) and preserved (HFpEF) ejection fraction

Recognize the expanded role for ARNIs in HFrEF and HFpEF, as well as the beneficial effects of sodium-glucose cotransporter-2 (SGLT2) inhibitors in the treatment of HFrEF

Review new and emerging evidence-based therapies in conjunction with recently updated ACC/AHA guidelines

Level: Intermediate

Correctional medicine is rarely taught in nursing schools and is relatively unknown as a career path, making it very difficult to recruit and retain nurses. How can a medical unit in corrections overcome these obstacles? Learn the tips and tricks that can help staff your nursing department. More importantly, learn what can be done to retain nurses long term.

Educational Objectives:

Review of the issues of recruiting in correctional settings

Name the tools needed for an employer to successfully recruit nurses

Compare ways to retain correctional nurses

Level: Basic

Insomnia is a common complaint in corrections and a core symptom of many psychiatric disorders. It puts patients at increased risk for developing anxiety, depression, psychosis, violence, and even suicide. This session will describe the classic sleep model, the most common sleep disorders, the unique challenges in treating insomnia in corrections, and the risks of not treating acute and chronic insomnia. Attendees will gain a tool box of treatment options for our unique environment.

Educational Objectives:

Identify two reasons why it is important to treat sleep disturbances

Name five unique challenges with treating sleep disturbances in the correctional setting

Discuss three behavioral and two pharmacologic options for treating insomnia in a jail or prison

Level: Basic

No matter how appropriate the care of an offender might be, or how defensible the claim is, the deposition of site nurses, doctors and correctional officers can turn the tide on a defensible case. Invariably, persons being deposed are not familiar with the process, and naturally nervous tendencies compel them to say things that deeply harm the defense case, often without them even realizing it. Learn how to avoid doing substantial damage when testifying.

Educational Objectives:

Discuss the true use of depositions in correctional medicine litigation

Recognize the tricks and traps employed by opposing counsel in depositions

Contrast the value of simple answers against talking too much

Level: Intermediate

Engaging at-risk youth in juvenile justice settings can be challenging for even the most seasoned professionals. This session will review a success initiative experienced at one juvenile justice facility supported by the behavioral health, restorative justice, and "credible messenger" teams. The new approach increased youth engagement with cofacilitated group sessions and wellness activities, daily reflection of restorative justice principles, and a revised level system.

Educational Objectives:

Describe the traditional roles and responsibilities of behavioral health, restorative justice, and credible messenger teams

Name the barriers to traditional approaches to engaging youth in cognitive behavior treatment

Discuss the challenges and successes of combining behavioral health with restorative justice and credible justice programs

Level: Intermediate

Faced with the COVID-19 pandemic, the largest correctional system in the country embarked on a sizeable shift in normal operations to meet dramatic new mandates from the Centers for Disease Control. Leadership dismantled silos and changed the culture to create cross-functional teams. Following six collaborative strategies focused on communications, COVID-19 testing, operations, and management provided a successful framework for optimal patient and staff outcomes throughout the pandemic.

Educational Objectives:

Discuss collaborative communication and cooperative governance with internal and external stakeholders

Differentiate the challenges and opportunities caused by management strategies for COVID-19

Review the success and sustainability resulting in the dismantling of the silo mentality

Level: Basic

TBI can affect decision-making and memory, emotion management, sensitivity to sensory stimuli, and challenges in social skills and is related to drug and alcohol use, depression, anxiety, and anger management. Incarcerated people with TBI may engage in behaviors that make life in prison challenging. In this presentation, we describe the results of a five-year organizational change project seeking to improve outcomes through screening, treatment, accommodations, training, and peer mentoring.

Educational Objectives:

Identify mechanisms for supporting organizational change related to TBI

Describe challenges and possible solutions to screening men for TBI upon entry to prison and while incarcerated

Discuss the need for psychoeducational intervention and peer support of men with TBI

Level: Intermediate

The Certified Correctional Health Professional program is the premier national certification dedicated to recognizing the special skills and knowledge necessary to provide care in the complex world of corrections. Today the program certifies over 4,000 nurses, physicians, dentists, mental health professionals, administrators, and others. This talk will present an overview of CCHP certification including eligibility, how to apply, the exam, re-certification, and the benefits becoming a CCHP.

Educational Objectives:

Identify the eligibility criteria and application process for CCHP certifications

Explain how to prepare for CCHP exams

Describe the recertification process and continuing education requirements

Level: Basic

Older individuals often present with eye conditions and pathologies unique to the geriatric population. Their sight may depend on their health care providers recognizing, understanding, and appropriately referring these patients for evaluation of their visual complaints and ocular conditions. This session reviews common conditions and pathologies and explains commonly reported symptoms, clinical signs, referral timetables, and possible treatments for the eye care needs of this growing segment of the correctional population.

Educational Objectives:

Review the symptoms of different eye conditions that commonly affect the geriatric incarcerated population

Describe the clinical signs of commonly seen ocular conditions in this population

Discuss the current treatment modalities of the more commonly seen conditions

Level: Basic

With suicide being a leading cause of inmate deaths in jails and prisons, it is imperative that nurses have the knowledge and skills required to assess patients and implement appropriate interventions to identify and decrease risks when caring for the suicidal patient.

Educational Objectives:

Discuss statistics related to suicides in jails and prisons

Describe the nurse's role when caring for the patient at risk of self-harm

List nursing interventions for patients in correctional settings who are at risk of self-harm

Level: Basic

Behavioral health and medical clinicians will benefit from this update on current psychiatric medication treatments for the mental health concerns most commonly seen in corrections, including mood, anxiety, psychotic, substance use, and personality disorders. Learn about potential side effects and treatment implications for both chronic and acute mental health concerns. Participants will review when referral for psychiatric care is indicated and how to facilitate collaboration between mental health and psychiatry.

Educational Objectives:

List commonly prescribed psychotropic medications including prescriptive reasoning, intended action, and common side effects

Indicate when psychotropic medications are indicated for common mental health diagnoses

Examine collaboration between medical, behavioral health, and psychiatry

Level: Basic

Due to availability of more potent antiretrovirals for HIV, there is a renewed interest in drug-sparing strategies, particularly two-drug regimens, to reduce long-term drug-related adverse effects and potentially lower health care costs. This presentation reviews the cost-effectiveness and roles of two-drug regimens as initial and maintenance HIV-1 therapy and provides relevant pharmacologic considerations, including drug-drug interactions and potential challenges.

Educational Objectives:

Review clinical data that support the use of available two-drug antiretroviral regimens as initial and maintenance therapy

Examine the cost-effectiveness of two-drug antiretroviral regimens

Evaluate the roles of two-drug antiretroviral regimens and pharmacological considerations associated with each regimen

Level: Intermediate

In an age of data-driven decision-making and law enforcement accountability, prison system stakeholders -- from families of inmates to the federal court -- increasingly demand access to detailed information about our prison population, operations, and outcomes. This presentation describes California's experience with three recent reporting efforts and offers suggestions about what to do and what not to do when issuing reports to the public.

Educational Objectives:

Name three advantages and three potential pitfalls of public reporting

Describe best practices in public reporting, including documentation standards, accessibility for people with disabilities, and end-user support.

Identify architecture and formats used in public reporting, and how these configurations that might be applied in public reporting.

Level: Intermediate

Overdiagnosis, underdiagnosis, and misdiagnosis of substance abuse overdoses and withdrawals are common hazards in corrections, with deadly outcomes awaiting. Physicians, nurse practitioners, PAs, nurses, and correctional officers all have responsibility and potential liability in this area. This session will cover the diagnosis, monitoring, and treatment of common and uncommon substances in overdose and withdrawal. The session concludes with an interactive discussion of participants' experiences and lessons learned.

Educational Objectives:

Review the presentations and diagnosis of commonly and uncommonly abused substances in overdose and withdrawal syndromes

Describe the monitoring, management, and treatment of these syndromes

State experiences and pitfalls in the management of these syndromes

Level: Intermediate

As the prison population ages, prisons are taking on the role of nursing home for long-term care for incarcerated individuals experiencing age-related cognitive decline. This presentation will discuss the creation of a dementia housing unit and training program within a prison setting. Through the use of best practices in dementia screening, environmental interventions, and interdisciplinary coordination, correctional facilities can successfully provide a high standard of care.

Educational Objectives:

Identify common symptoms and behavioral problems found in individuals with dementia

Discuss the use of dementia screening and assessment tools in a prison environment

Describe a training curriculum for inmate aides, security, mental health, and medical staff

Level:Basic

The health care needs of justice-involved women are extensive. Health care providers can help meet those needs by partnering with advocates to support legislative change. In New Jersey, advocacy resulted in the creation of the New Jersey Commission on Reentry Services for Women. Attendees can learn about ways to partner with advocates to meet the needs of justice-involved women in their own communities and states through this case study.

Educational objectives:

Identify best practices in how medical providers can partner with advocates and legislators to advance reforms
Describe the health care needs of justice-involved women
Apply these lessons to advocate in one's own community

Level: Basic

Although acute and chronic wounds are common health problems in prisons and jails, most care providers are not wound specialists. The presenter will give a clear, fast-paced overview of wound assessment, diagnosis, and management that can improve the confidence of correctional nurses and physicians as they deliver and chart wound care. Goals include addressing underlying causes of wounds, preventing and helping resolve infections, decreasing pain, and speeding wound closure.

Educational Objectives:

Describe the four stages of wound healing

Assess wounds well enough to confidently chart the type of wound and stage of healing

Evaluate which features of an ideal wound dressing are most important for a given patient

Level: Intermediate

This session has been cancelled. 

Despite much empirical evidence for the success of MAT, there is still disapproval and stigma surrounding it. This presentation involves real results from a partnership between community medical services and Pima County’s criminal justice system. This presentation will explore the history of MAT, recent trends in opioids, best practices, compliance issues, how to implement these practices in criminal justice facilities to keep staff safe, and areas for further collaboration.

Educational Objectives:

Discuss the history of medication-assisted treatment history and FDA-approved medications

Describe how Arizona justice courts, probation, and detention centers are supporting individuals struggling with substance dependence

Evaluate the results of implementing MAT into problem solving courts, probation, and detention/reentry centers

Level: Intermediate

In many settings, safety concerns for suicide watch often lead to uncomfortable conditions for the person who is on watch. Unwanted outcomes include increased hesitancy to disclose suicide symptoms in order to avoid the restrictions of a suicide safe setting, isolation from others, limited out of cell time, limited possessions in the cell, and limited dietary choices. The presentation reviews the many forms of suicide watch, and describes innovative methods to enhance therapeutic effects without compromising safety.

Educational Objectives:

Differentiate among different levels of suicide watch and associated restrictions using NCCHC standards

Evaluate options available to modify suicide watches

Identify obstacles to effective treatment on suicide watch and strategies to address them

Level: Basic

Clinical decision support provides timely health care information to clinicians and patients. Learn how correctional health care programs can use CDS and disease registries to improve communication, safety, prioritization, and longitudinal management of individuals who have hepatitis C. Using CDS and DR provides value by improving safety and efficiency. These tools can not only help identify candidates for treatment, but also uncover patients who may benefit from MAT and community resources after release.

Educational Objectives:

Describe the advantages of using external clinical decision support

List the advantages of creating and/or customizing internal clinical decision support

Review the advantages of creating disease registries

Level: Intermediate

As advances in technology continue to influence the medical field, the role the nurse is evolving. One of the nurse's primary responsibilities is to focus on the care and safety of the patient. Theory and practice are the foundations of the nursing process. An integral component of this process is critical thinking. This presentation will look at the importance of the nursing process, evidence-based practices, and the value of critical thinking in promoting patient safety and favorable outcomes.

Educational Objectives:

Describe the nursing process

Define the concepts of critical thinking

Discuss nursing interventions and the goals of patient care

Level: Basic

The MusicArts Initiative (MAI) is an innovative, evidenced-based intervention that provides culturally and socially appropriate opportunities to stimulate imaginative and creative thinking. It requires learning, teaching, and practicing essential community life skills. The data indicates this intervention serves as a vehicle for positive change for incarcerated adolescents by promoting prosocial behaviors and providing opportunities for essential self-exploration. The presenter will share how the MAI has worked in two juvenile detention facilities to transform lives.

Educational Objectives:

Identify the positive behavioral outcomes of engaging incarcerated adolescents in music and the arts

Discuss required steps for developing a music and arts program

Explain how music and arts provide culture-specific experiences that foster prosocial life skills

Level: Basic

Using Louisiana State Penitentiary as a case study, this session will describe an analysis of correctional staff members views on delivering end-of-life care. This presentation covers the meaningful experiences of staff members participating in a hospice-based peer-inmate program, as well as future research considerations to attain a better understanding of the needs of the dying and their essential providers.

Educational Objectives:

Discuss the experiences of correctional staff who deliver essential care for dying, incarcerated individuals

Examine the role correctional staff members play within correctional hospice-based programs

Summarize the needs of the dying and their providers

Level: Basic

The goal of suicide prevention is to reduce risk before it becomes a crisis and, when necessary, defuse a crisis before it becomes fatal. Understanding of suicide risks and warning signs in incarcerated populations is expanding, and effective prevention strategies and interventions are in use. Through the Suicide Prevention Resource Guide, NCCHC and the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention are working to reduce suicide in jails. This session focuses on three areas: assessment, intervention and treatment, and training.

Educational objectives:

Describe suicide risks and warning signs specific to incarcerated populations
Distinguish between screening and assessment
Identify ways to reduce risk before it becomes a crisis

Level: Basic

Improve patient and staff safety with effective approaches to the major risk areas for correctional health care: high-risk patients, workflow challenges, and critical thinking skills. Review the roles of diagnostic error, communication, documentation, and clinical inertia in creating and mitigating risk. The presentation is based on the STEEEP (Safe, Timely, Efficient, Equitable, Effective, and Patient Centered) principles promoted by the Institute of Medicine. Learn new tools to improve patient care and staff engagement.

Educational Objectives:

Discuss the effects of diagnostic uncertainty

Identify workflow issues that can be addressed to mitigate risk

Explain the characteristics of high-risk patients

Level: Intermediate

An effective sick call system is a key component to a patient's access to care. Depending on the facility type and resources available, responses to patient care requests can be accomplished in various ways. This presentation will provide administrators, nurses, and providers with knowledge of national standards related to responding to nonemergency health care requests from patients, including discussion of common pitfalls with sick call systems.

Educational Objectives:

Review national standards related to nonemergency health care requests and services

Describe various systems for conducting sick call

List common pitfalls with sick call systems

Level: Basic

This presentation will present findings from a phenomenological, qualitative research study that included in-depth interviews with 22 Master's and Doctoral-level, correctional mental health professionals in Colorado. Particular attention will be paid to the themes related to clinical supervision of correctional mental health professionals. It will explore the roles of clinical supervision versus "management" with a focus on enhancing clinical supervision resources for mental health staff. A model for correctional supervision will be presented and explored.

Educational Objectives:

Identify key theoretical explanations related to the experience of correctional mental health professionals

Explain a proposed model of correctional clinical supervision for mental health professionals

Analyze the study's findings related to clinical supervision for correctional mental health professionals

Level: Intermediate

Throughout 2020, jails and prisons were a flashpoint for concerns over COVID-19. This presentation will describe the steps taken to address the COVID-19 pandemic during the first wave in the Connecticut combined jail-prison system. It will also cover the presenter's research findings on facility- and individual-factors leading to poor outcomes, and the challenges and solutions medical leaders faced in policy, implementation, and data analysis.

Educational Objectives:

• Identify the challenges of setting up a COVID unit in integrated jail/prison setting
• Describe the infrastructure need for tracking and analyzing COVID data
• Summarize the most important risk factors for SARS-CoV-2 infection and death

Level: Basic

One of the greatest threats to correctional workforce wellness involves the stress encountered on the job. The effects of stress extend to the correctional agency through reduced work performance, absenteeism, and employee turnover. The session will share evidence-based practices and resources for individuals and organizations to manage these issues. Take this opportunity to try brief stress-modifying behaviors and discuss adaptation to your workplace.

Educational Objectives:

Define personal and organizational wellness

List three wellness behaviors

Describe one personal and one organizational strategy to promote wellness

Level: Basic

In this pilot project, a multidisciplinary team convened to enhance root cause analysis practices to take more effective, systems-based actions to ensure patient safety. By using cognitive aids and building RCA best practices into technological platforms, staff was able to identify and select causal factors beyond human factors with greater than 85% efficiency. Because of the resource challenges in correctional health care, technology systems can be an important element in hardwiring quality improvement.

Educational Objectives:

Identify common root cause types for events in health care

List relevant causal factors for most common root cause types

Differentiate between intermediate and stronger, more sustainable actions

Level: Intermediate

Correctional nurses encounter unique ethical challenges. Education and nursing experience may not prepare the nurse to address the ethical tension that arises when professional practice and work culture collide. The choices nurses make can have an impact on their mental health, professional practice, and the delivery of quality patient care. This presentation answers the "why" of nursing ethics and offers empowerment strategies.

Educational Objectives:

Identify three areas of ethical dilemmas unique to nursing and correctional health care

Examine at least two experiences that have created ethical challenges

Create an action strategy address to ethical issues that impact patient outcomes

Level: Intermediate

Psychopathic individuals are overrepresented in corrections at a rate 15 to 25 times higher than the general population and are more likely to engage in disruptive behavior. While clinical lore posits that they are “untreatable,” potentially successful interventions focus on treating interfering characteristics and behavioral manifestations. The session will include the clinical and behavioral traits of psychopathy, recent advances of the biopsychosocial model for understanding psychopathy, treatment issues, and new novel interventions.

Educational Objectives:

Explain the interpersonal and behavioral manifestations of psychopathy

Examine the biopsychosocial model of psychopathy

Apply the general tenets for developing a treatment program for psychopathic patients

Level: Intermediate

This presentation focuses on a new federally funded demonstration project implemented by the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control, the South Carolina Department of Corrections, and the University of South Carolina School of Medicine. The project’s aim is a sustainable program supporting continuity of HIV medical care for people released from state prisons into the community, emphasizing postrelease care engagement, adherence to treatment, and viral suppression.

Educational Objectives:

Describe the benefits of public health and corrections partnerships to improve outcomes across the HIV care continuum

Analyze South Carolina's approach to engage priority populations, partners, and stakeholders to implement a pre- and postrelease discharge planning program for incarcerated persons with HIV

Identify early lessons learned for successful community reentry for incarcerated persons with HIV to maintain care and treatment outcomes

Level: Intermediate

Research indicates treatment adaptations are necessary for clients with neurocognitive and developmental delays to be successful in sex offense treatment. This presentation will outline common challenges that warrant adaptive treatment and common adaptations made for treatment. Practical applications will be discussed through comparing traditional treatment assignments to adapted assignments and providing case examples. Treatment approaches are based on cognitive behavioral therapy, dialectical behavioral therapy, and acceptance and commitment therapy.

Educational Objectives:

Recognize different neurodevelopmental and neurocognitive disorders that require adapted treatment approaches

Differentiate between traditional treatment approaches and adapted treatment approaches

Describe application of adapted treatment approaches

Level: Basic

The prevalence of epilepsy in the population is 1%; among these patients, intractable epilepsy is 20% to 40%. In correctional settings, health care professionals see many "seizures." Some are real, some are not. This presentation features videos of people having epileptic seizures, psychogenic seizures, and other types of "shaking episodes" to illustrate the different types of seizures and the clinical differentiation of a seizure versus a psychogenic seizure.

Educational Objectives:

Explain the clinical differences between a partial versus a generalized seizure

Examine the clinical scenario where one would consider a cardiac etiology for a patient's shaking

Identify the common clinical entities for a pseudoseizure

Level: Basic

Regulated nutritional standards allow public health and criminal justice professionals to improve predominantly marginalized populations’ health and reduce disease burden and health care costs. Drawing on the New Jersey Commission on Women’s Reentry objectives, this session describes nutrition in prison and challenges to the delivery of a well-balanced diet, including the accessibility of religious and cultural diets, availability of special dietary considerations for pregnant people, lack of nutritional awareness among the incarcerated, and associated costs.

Educational Objectives:

Review current nutritional and health conditions of women in correctional facilities

Analyze existing challenges to adequate nutrition for women in correctional facilities

Discuss the importance of implementing nutrition templates in correctional facilities

Level: Intermediate

In 2020, the California prison system revolutionized the way it provides substance use treatment. The new approach requires close communication with state parole and county probation partners to help patients safely transition to the community after release, facilitated through a real-time information-sharing portal. This presentation describes the new portal, how data is used, and plans to expand the exchange of data with county and state agencies. Data sharing also may help track patient outcomes in the future.

Educational Objectives:

Describe the technologies used to create the information-sharing portal between the CDCR and California's 58 counties

Identify four types of data shared through the CDCR's prerelease registries

Analyze data-sharing opportunities at the state level that could be used to improve future services

Level: Basic

Research is beginning to reveal the emotional toll on mental health from the pandemic. One of the hardest hit groups are those working in health care. Reports of nurse and physician suicides shine a spotlight on the fear, devastation, and social isolation experienced by so many. This presentation will highlight recent studies regarding the impact on mental health, the increase in suicide and mental suffering, and strategies to provide support for health care staff.

Educational Objectives:

Describe the impacts of the pandemic on the mental health of health care providers and frontline workers

Discuss the risk for suicide for health care professionals and frontline workers

Identify strategies to recognize signs of emotional distress related to the pandemic

Level: Intermediate