Enhanced Reentry Services for Individuals with Co-occurring Disorders - This proposal, Project ReConnect, from Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU), is in response to funding opportunity TI-23-006 (FY 2023 Adult Reentry Program) and seeks funding to innovate a high-fidelity Critical Time Intervention (CTI) program enhanced with evidence-based practices to serve 275 individuals with substance use disorders (SUDs) and co-occurring substance use and mental illnesses (CODs) who are incarcerated in the Chesterfield County jail (Chesterfield County, VA), and individuals involved with the criminal justice system who are participating in reentry programs with REAL LIFE, a community-based reentry agency. Our CTI team, will provide comprehensive, trauma-informed evidence-based supports in the Chesterfield County jail, in collaboration with the jail’s residential substance abuse treatment program, and continue services post-release, in collaboration with REAL LIFE (Richmond, VA), a community-based substance abuse treatment and reentry organization, to address the needs of individuals with SUDs and CODs. Our goal is to provide in-jail and community-based services to ensure successful community reentry outcomes for individuals with SUDs/CODs with the following measurable objectives: (1) develop a full-fidelity CTI team to serve individuals with SUDs/CODs incarcerated in the Chesterfield County jail and during reentry; (2) serve 275 individuals over a 5-year project period; (3) track substance use, relapse, drug overdose, health and behavioral health functioning, housing, employment and other outcomes among Project ReConnect participants at baseline, 6- and 12-months; and (4) innovate a multidisciplinary criminal justice/social work internship program and train 20 students to work across criminal justice and social service sectors. Project ReConnect will provide participants: (1) in-jail services for those soon-to-be released individuals with SUDs/CODs; (2) transition services from the jail to community; (3) evidence-based Individual Placement Support and Supported Employment (IPS-SE); (4) peer recovery specialist support; (5) executive functioning skills building; (6) housing assistance/placement using a Housing First model; (7) substance use prevention, recovery and harm reduction services; and (8) comprehensive case management and linkage to long-term clinical services. We will accomplish these aims by creating a full-fidelity CTI team consisting of a team lead, case manager, employment/housing specialist, and peer support workers. Project ReConnect will integrate evidence-based practices (e.g., IPS-SE, Peer Support, and SOAR) to enhance community reentry outcomes for individuals with SUDs and CODs. Also, given our unique academic-criminal justice-community provider collaboration, we will innovate a multi-disciplinary criminal justice – social work student internship program. We will develop a specialized curriculum for our students which prepares them to work across social work, substance abuse treatment and criminal justice disciplines. We plan to train and supervise up to 20 students who will work as part of our Project ReConnect team. We will develop learning modules focused on: (1) evidence-based mental health and substance abuse practices; (2) evidence-based criminal justice practices; and (3) boundary spanning between the criminal justice and social service sectors. Our proposal - to facilitate successful jail-to-community transitions among 275 individuals with SUDs and CODs using an EBP-enhanced CTI model and to develop a multidisciplinary student internship program to equip students with the literacy and knowledge to work across multiple public sectors to best serve justice-involved populations - has the potential to make a high impact in our local community and is well-aligned with SAMHSA’s strategic priorities.
