Resource Details

Incarceration and Homelessness: Reentry Considerations for Health Care Providers

Healing Hands

Year Developed: 2024

Resource Type: Publication.

Primary Audience: Clinicians
Secondary Audience: Administrative Staff Board of Directors C-Suite (CEOs, CFOs, CIO, COOs, CMOs, etc.) Enabling Staff Outreach Staff PCAs

Language(s): English

Developed by: National Health Care for the Homeless Council (See other resources developed by this organization).

Resource Summary: For clinics providing healthcare to people experiencing homelessness, understanding the specific challenges associated with reentry is key to offering effective and compassionate care during the reentry period. This care takes the form of understanding systems and processes in order to facilitate access to healthcare, and it also involves being willing to transform organizational structures to include people with experience of incarceration as experts in providing care to others.

Resource Details: Mass incarceration in the United States impacts millions of people directly, and every community by extension. Returning community members are extremely vulnerable to the impacts of stigma and other forms of social inequality, including homelessness, and are often dealing with serious physical and mental health problems. For clinics providing healthcare to people experiencing homelessness, understanding the specific challenges associated with reentry is key to offering effective and compassionate care during the reentry period. This care takes the form of understanding systems and processes in order to facilitate access to healthcare, and it also involves being willing to transform organizational structures to include people with experience of incarceration as experts in providing care to others.

Resource Topic: Clinical Issues, , Special and Vulnerable Populations

Resource Subtopic: , Social Determinants of Health (SDOH).

Keywords: Access to Care, Community Health Workers, Persons Experiencing Homelessness.