KEYWORDS:
Hepatitis, Juvenile Correctional Facility

BACKGROUND:
The Plainfield (Indiana) Juvenile Correctional Facility houses males 12 to 21 years of age, the majority of whom are incarcerated for sex offenses. Since the incarcerated are at higher risk of hepatitis infection, the Indiana State Department of Health, Immunization Division, modified its pre-existing hepatitis education program at the Indiana Women's Prison so that it would be appropriate for this new audience.

OBJECTIVE:
To provide hepatitis A, B, and C education to an incarcerated audience where none exists and to increase the rate of requests for the hepatitis B vaccine, which is given on a free and voluntary basis.

METHOD:
The first step was to identify the proper channels to get permission for this activity. The contact, the Community Outreach Coordinator, would provide access to the facitilty and coordinate the educational activities. The educators had the opportunity to observe an HIV presentation at the facility by persons who had been working with the "students" for the pervious year. A "Community Provider Handbook" was provided and reviewed which detailed the demographics of the juveniles and also described personality traits and outlined approptiate communication styles for outreach providers. The educators received more in-depth training in hepatitis before commencing the presentations, which were approximately one hour in length and given to 11 separate groups, with each group consisting of about 25 "students." Presentations were given over a span of three days and were informal, interactive, and involved a "question and answer" phase.

RESULT:
As a result of these presentations, the facility's nursing supervisor and review of the tally sheets from the Vaccines For Children program has reported an increase in both hepatitis B vaccination and hepatitis testing.

CONCLUSION:
Hepatitis education can increase immunization rates in high risk populations.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES:
Participants will learn how to develop and implement a hepatitis education program appropriate for juveniles in a correctional setting.