Quality Improvement Fund - Justice Involved - Boston Health Care for the Homeless Program (BHCHP) proposes to innovate and expand its existing prison re-entry services to more comprehensively address the critical health needs of individuals who are exiting incarceration to homelessness. People who are or have been incarcerated have a higher burden of chronic medical conditions (including hypertension, diabetes, and asthma) as well as substance use disorders and mental health conditions. People exiting carceral settings also face extremely elevated risks of mortality from overdose and other causes. Incarceration is also closely associated with homelessness, which presents its own barriers to good health. In response to these problems BHCHP proposes to pilot an expansion of its existing reentry program and services. Our Reentry Initiatives for Support and Empowerment (RISE) team will bridge incarcerated adults who are within 90 days of exiting prison or jail to community-based health care and intensive case management services upon release. Community partners will include Justice 4 Housing and Project Place, Boston non-profits working to alleviate housing insecurity and financial strain. Boston Health Care for the Homeless Program annually serves over 11,000 individuals experiencing homelessness at more than 35 clinical sites in the greater Boston area. In addition to our collaboration with the Suffolk County House of Corrections, BHCHP partners with shelter providers, departments of public health, and hospitals to provide access to medical care and services. BHCHP centers patients and innovates ways to care for people who are unsheltered, proving, for example, that people with hepatitis C who are homeless can be cured and that people with HIV who are living on the street can have undetectable viral loads. Boston Health Care for the Homeless Program respectfully requests support in the amount of $1,000,000 for this project.
