Young people in conflict with the law and the interaction with practitioners:initial findings related to health care outcomes in the Scottish context

IntroductionYoung people (YP) in conflict with the law have the worst health outcomes than the general population. Studies show that YP that were incarcerated will have worse physical and mental health outcomes (Barnert et al., 2017). One aspect is still to be considered in more depth, which regards the place of stigma (Hatzenbuehler, Phelan, Link, 2013) and symbolic violence (Bourdieu, 1989) as a factor that can impact on health outcomes for YP in conflict with the law. ObjectivesThis study aims to explore how the interaction of YP in conflict with the law and service provision/practitioners can play a role in the reproduction of health inequalities. It was used the health care field as a social space where contact, tensions and power relations emerge. MethodologyPhD thesis in progress, with a comparative study between Scotland and Brazil. It is a qualitative ethnographic study. In this paper, it will be discussed the field notes that were taken during a participant observation approach in Scotland between August 2019 to January 2020. The study setting was a community-based organization in Scotland working with YP released from prison that identify needs and address issues faced by YP. It was used thematic analysis for data analysis. ResultsThe preliminary results show that the interaction of YP with services provision/practitioners can play a role in the reproduction of health inequalities because it can affect the experience of YP and service provision. It was possible to observe that social housing issues (judgmental practice) and mental health issues (long waiting list, lack of contextualization) demonstrated the complexity and multi demands that are presented by YP. These reveal the symbolic violence in which certain assumptions and beliefs about YP are reproduced by professional practice (Fernandes et al., 2018) and can be reinforced by the stigma associated to the ‘offender’ status.Conclusions Preliminary data show that interactions between YP in conflict with the law and service provision/practitioners can impact in the reproduction of health inequalities. Some areas that will be further explored are the reproduction of the assumptions about YP, symbolic violence and stigma issues in professional practice.