Unlocking potential: challenges for primary health care researchers in the prison setting

This issue of Primary Health Care Research and Development features a number of papers concerned with researching the needs of, and services for, socially excluded groups.Many prisoners have experienced social exclusion including running away from home as a child, truanting and exclusion from school, poor numeracy and reading skills, unemployment, and homelessness.The social disadvantage that many prisoners experience also affects their families, particularly children, as well as the community from which they originate.Research into many aspects of primary care involving prisoners is lacking.In many countries, the concept of primary care in prisons is new, with the focus of health care being on mental health and substance misuse, and in some areas communicable diseases where there is a large public health issue.It is understandable that the research evidence will be thin in new and emerging areas of primary care such as in the prison setting, and many opportunities exist for researchers to develop our knowledge and understanding of a very needy population.