OK as a Lisensed Nursing Home Administrator and continuing education professional nurse I am quite qualified to speak about this. I was also a health care manager for a major prison at one time.
Please keep in mind geriatrics is geriatrics the offenders have the same problems as any other "older person" would have they just start around age 50 or so due to the stressors they placed in their lives. Stress can age a person fast. Not all offenders but I would say alot of them experience this if they continue on the road they are on. Most medical professional say geriatrics start at 60 on the outside.
You need to know 2 things geriatrics and safety of the prison faciltiy. You must combine them together. Let me give both the medical and safety view point:
For the medical staff we are familiar with having privacy with our patient, this is drilled into us from day one. We work in the prison setting this is taken away from us when we deal with some offenders, it takes alot of mental change for the medical staff to get use to and this is where alot of problems happen between medical and safety staff. Additionally medical professionals are use to being able to provide or at least tell our clients where they may obtain items in which we may feel their quality of life will be enhance ie parafan wax for arthritis, which in turn our patients maybe show some improvement not only with their arthritis but mental health status as well. In prison you cannot do this. I do want to say for the most part medical staff and security at least in my experience have mutual respect for one another and try very hard to maintain professionalism at all times. By not having privacy I am speaking about talking to offenders through cell doors because of the offenders assignment or if they are brought in and shackled you must have security. It is hard to ask questions when security is standing 2 feet away.
From a security side, security comes first. (I understand security comes first for I want to go home at the end of the day!!! ). Medical wants to give a geriatric offender a cane for walking security says no. Why? because other offenders may take the cane and use it as a weapon, medical must give the offendeer a wheelchair and pusher it is safer. Additionally this causes the geriatric offender to possible have what we call contractures, in other words while the safety of the prison is upheld the offender may have additional issues because they are now in a wheelchair not excerising, losing muscle tone. You see it is a balancing act. This is why we need specalized prisons. Its not just geriatrics its any medical/mental health issue.
I guess what I am trying to tell you is there really is no magic to this it is just simply knowing how one grows older, you must adapt. Being in prison it is hard to live in surrounds when you are on a timeline. It can get you in trouble or killed. Correctional staff can be trained in basic geriatric understanding to allow the offender to leave for the dining hall 10 mins early to eat or for any movement, when speaking to offender look directly at offender as they maybe hard of hearing. Contact the area on aging in your community or community health nurse they would be happy to come in and teach a 30 min class to security staff about geriatrics for free it is your tax monies after all. Forward thinking: add a geriatric class to the DOC core training program. Lastly, do not assume medical staff know geriatrics it took me many years to fully understand geriatrics and most colleges do not require formal geriatric classes when medical proffessional go through their training. If you cannot find anyone contact me back I do this for a living too.