Spanner in the Works?

The ‘Spanner in the Works? promoting male health in the criminal justice system’ project was conducted to pilot an adapted version of the Spanner in the Works? toolkit for use in the criminal justice system. The resources developed for the project are designed to support existing services provided by health services in the corrections setting.   

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The project partners are:

• Australian Men’s Shed Association
• Healthy Male
• Correct Care Australasia

The project purpose was:

1. To develop resources to positively influence the health decision-making of males in the corrections setting
2. To improve access to evidence-based information on a range of health topics for males in the criminal justice system
3. To develop consistent, simple and accessible health promotion resources to support health professionals delivering health information and education services to males in the criminal justice system

The objectives of the project were to:

1. Trial the use of evidence-based health information on 25 prisoners within Karreenga correctional facility
2. To provide an evidence-based health promotion presentation to help correctional facility staff deliver health information 
3. Measure the influence of information on health behaviour in a correctional facility. 
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The results of the evaluation indicate that a targeted, co-designed men’s health promotion toolkit has the potential to positively influence the health decision-making of males in corrections settings when delivered with the support of the health centre team.

Despite delays and adjustments due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the project has been valuable in determining health promotion priorities and requirements in the corrections setting. Funding permitting, this would be a valuable resource to scale up to support health services in corrections settings more broadly.  

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