Abstract: How the Service Needs Priorities of People with Mental Illness Shape Community Reintegration Efforts after Release from Jail (Society for Social Work and Research 22nd Annual Conference - Achieving Equal Opportunity, Equity, and Justice)

Schedule:

Friday, January 12, 2018: 5:15 PM

Capitol (ML4) (Marriott Marquis Washington DC)

* noted as presenting author

Amy Blank Wilson, PhD, Assistant Professor, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC

Stacey Barrenger, PhD, Assistant Professor, New York University, NYC, NY

Ashley Givens, MSW, Doctoral Student, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC

Nikhal Tomar, MS, Doctoral Student, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC

Jeff Draine, PhD, Professor, Temple University, Philadelpha, PA

Background: People with mental illness involved in the criminal justice system are confronted with a complex array of service needs when they leave jail. The nature of these service needs creates a help seeking hierarchy wherein a person must first find sustainable sources of food, clothes, and housing before they can pursue help other needs. The research presented here will add to our knowledge about service needs of people with mental illness leaving jail by examining their service needs priorities and how they change during the first six months after release.

Methods: Data from an observational study of the reentry experiences of 97 individuals with mental illness incarcerated in a large urban jail were used in this analysis. This study used a semi-structured interview to examine how participants' defined and prioritized the help they needed in 14 different domains. For each domain that individuals identified needing help, they were asked to indicate whether they were receiving the needed help, and rate the sufficiency of the help they received. Participants were also asked to identify their service priorities by selecting three domains that they ranked as most important in terms of receiving help. This interview was completed at baseline (prior to release from jail), and again at two weeks and six months’ post-release. Participants average age was 39.77 (11.16). 70% of the participants were male, 69% was African American, and 10% was Latina. 80% of the participants were single, never married, and less than 55% of the sample had obtained a high school degree.

Results: Housing predominated participants service needs, leading to surprisingly little change in the service priorities of participants throughout the study. Participants identified housing as their top service priority at all three interview time point. It was also the 3^rd most important service priority at the baseline and 2-week interview, and the 2^nd most important service priority at the 6^th month time point. Yet despite the high level of importance participants placed on getting help with housing, only a small percentage of participants reporting receiving help with housing at each time point (less then 20%,) most of who rated the amount of help they received as inadequate.

Implications: Stable housing is a key component of community reintegration efforts. Maslow’s Hierarchy of Need suggests that people leaving jail will not be able to address other important aspects of community integration, such as the need for employment, treatment, or social connections until their more basic needs are met. The fact that the majority of participants in this study identified housing as their most pressing service need 6 months after release has important implications for reentry and reintegration efforts for people with mental illness leaving jail. But this finding also raises questions about equity and social justice that require further consideration in research and practice with justice involved populations.