Improving Linkage to Health and Other Services for Veterans Leaving Incarceration

Summary

Veterans leaving incarceration and re-entering their communities (often described as "reentry" Veterans) face a number of challenges, including uncertainty about housing, vulnerability to substance use and relapse, on-going mental health concerns, and often multiple health conditions require timely continuity of care. The purpose of the project is to increase support for Veterans post-incarceration through the addition of trained peers with lived experience of being a Veteran and a history of incarceration. Emphasis will be on peers who will help link Veterans to Veterans Health Administration (VHA) services, including housing and healthcare. Peers will provide linkage with Health Care Reentry Veterans program specialists, transportation to appointments, and support in community reintegration. Peers will assist reentry veterans to make a successful transition and get and stay engaged in their care.

Conditions

• Linkage to Care
• Homelessness
• Substance Use Disorder
• Mental Health

Interventions

BEHAVIORAL

Peer-support plus usual care from the Health Care for Reentry Veterans program

a peer mentor who is also a veteran will establish a relationship with each subject and provide instrumental and emotional support to the subject during the first 6 months of the subject's release from incarceration. This is in addition to the usual reentry support provided by the Health Care for Reentry Veterans program.

BEHAVIORAL

Usual care from the Health Care for Reentry Veterans program

Health Care for Reentry Veterans program provides reentry planning while the veteran is incarcerated. An outreach worker visits the veteran in the incarceration facility to conduct a needs assessment and help create a reentry plan to cover issues such as where they will be housed, what health care appointments they will need in the first 30 days, whether they need legal assistance, etc.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• US Department of Veterans Affairs

  collaborator FED

• VA Office of Research and Development

  lead FED

Principal Investigators

• Donald K McInnes, ScD MS BA · VA Bedford HealthCare System, Bedford, MA

• Allen L. Gifford, MD · VA Bedford HealthCare System, Bedford, MA

Study Design

Allocation

NON_RANDOMIZED

Purpose

SUPPORTIVE_CARE

Masking

NONE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

No

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2017-11-27

Primary Completion

2020-09-15

Completion

2021-09-15

Countries

• United States

Study Locations