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Miami-Dade county’s criminal mental health project
Connecting older reentrants to health coverage and public benefits
Feinberg, R. K., McKay, T., & Bir, A. (2018). Miami-Dade county’s criminal mental health project: Connecting older reentrants to health coverage and public benefits. RTI International.
The higher prevalence of infectious diseases, chronic medical conditions, disabilities, and cognitive impairments in this population means that older reentrants must find ways to meet their physical and behavioral health needs as part of the reentry process. This can involve securing health coverage, connecting with community-based medical and behavioral health care, and attempting to ensure continuity for prescription drugs taken for chronic physical or mental health conditions. Those unable to work due to functional impairments (very common among incarcerated older adults; see “Health Needs of Older Reentrants” on p. 12) must also identify sources of subsistence income to remain stable. Few prisoner reentry programs, court diversion programs, or health coverage enrollment initiatives are tailored to the needs of older reentrants, yet older adults are likely to comprise an increasing proportion of those seeking such forms of assistance. This brief examines how one such program, Miami-Dade County’s Criminal Mental Health Project, meets the needs of older adults returning from incarceration.
