Incarcerated people with diabetes have many barriers to health, including proper diet, exercise, medications, and self-care education. Maintaining good control is time-consuming, costly, and stressful, and diabetes emergency care is even more so. A better approach is to empower the patient on self-management through education on how to optimize the factors they can control, even in the difficult conditions of incarceration. Empowerment can also benefit the patient in other aspects of their well-being.

• List barriers to optimal diabetes care unique to the correctional environment
• Discuss potential results of patient empowerment for staff and patients alike

Level: Intermediate