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Formerly Incarcerated Community Health Workers Engaging Individuals Returning From Incarceration Into Primary Care: Results From the Transition Clinic Network

Over half a million individuals return from United States prisons and millions more from jails every year, many of whom with complex health and social needs. Community health workers (CHWs) perform diverse roles to improve health outcomes in disadvantaged communities, but no studies have assessed th...

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Autores principales: Aminawung, Jenerius A., Harvey, Tyler D., Smart, Jerry, Calderon, Joseph, Steiner, Anna, Kroboth, Elizabeth, Wang, Emily A., Shavit, Shira
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8376286/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34422744
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2021.681128
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author Aminawung, Jenerius A.
Harvey, Tyler D.
Smart, Jerry
Calderon, Joseph
Steiner, Anna
Kroboth, Elizabeth
Wang, Emily A.
Shavit, Shira
author_facet Aminawung, Jenerius A.
Harvey, Tyler D.
Smart, Jerry
Calderon, Joseph
Steiner, Anna
Kroboth, Elizabeth
Wang, Emily A.
Shavit, Shira
author_sort Aminawung, Jenerius A.
collection PubMed
description Over half a million individuals return from United States prisons and millions more from jails every year, many of whom with complex health and social needs. Community health workers (CHWs) perform diverse roles to improve health outcomes in disadvantaged communities, but no studies have assessed their role as integrated members of a primary care team serving individuals returning from incarceration. Using data from participants who received primary care through the Transitions Clinic Network, a model of care that integrates CHWs with a lived experienced of incarceration into primary care teams, we characterized how CHWs address participant health and social needs during interactions outside of clinic visits for 6 months after participants established primary care. Among the 751 participants, 79% had one or more CHW interactions outside of the clinic documented. Participants with more comorbid conditions, longer stays during their most recent incarceration, and released with a prescription had more interactions with CHWs compared to those with fewer comorbidities, shorter stays, and no prescription at release. Median number of interactions was 4 (interquartile range, IQR 2–8) and 56% were in person. The most common issues addressed (34%) were social determinants of health, with the most common being housing (35%). CHWs working in interdisciplinary primary care teams caring for people with histories of incarceration perform a variety of functions for clients outside of scheduled primary care visits. To improve health outcomes among disadvantaged populations, CHWs should be able to work across multiple systems, with supervision and support for CHW activities both in the primary care clinic and within the community.
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spelling pubmed-83762862021-08-20 Formerly Incarcerated Community Health Workers Engaging Individuals Returning From Incarceration Into Primary Care: Results From the Transition Clinic Network Aminawung, Jenerius A. Harvey, Tyler D. Smart, Jerry Calderon, Joseph Steiner, Anna Kroboth, Elizabeth Wang, Emily A. Shavit, Shira Front Public Health Public Health Over half a million individuals return from United States prisons and millions more from jails every year, many of whom with complex health and social needs. Community health workers (CHWs) perform diverse roles to improve health outcomes in disadvantaged communities, but no studies have assessed their role as integrated members of a primary care team serving individuals returning from incarceration. Using data from participants who received primary care through the Transitions Clinic Network, a model of care that integrates CHWs with a lived experienced of incarceration into primary care teams, we characterized how CHWs address participant health and social needs during interactions outside of clinic visits for 6 months after participants established primary care. Among the 751 participants, 79% had one or more CHW interactions outside of the clinic documented. Participants with more comorbid conditions, longer stays during their most recent incarceration, and released with a prescription had more interactions with CHWs compared to those with fewer comorbidities, shorter stays, and no prescription at release. Median number of interactions was 4 (interquartile range, IQR 2–8) and 56% were in person. The most common issues addressed (34%) were social determinants of health, with the most common being housing (35%). CHWs working in interdisciplinary primary care teams caring for people with histories of incarceration perform a variety of functions for clients outside of scheduled primary care visits. To improve health outcomes among disadvantaged populations, CHWs should be able to work across multiple systems, with supervision and support for CHW activities both in the primary care clinic and within the community. Frontiers Media S.A. 2021-08-05 /pmc/articles/PMC8376286/ /pubmed/34422744 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2021.681128 Text en Copyright © 2021 Aminawung, Harvey, Smart, Calderon, Steiner, Kroboth, Wang and Shavit. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Public Health
Aminawung, Jenerius A.
Harvey, Tyler D.
Smart, Jerry
Calderon, Joseph
Steiner, Anna
Kroboth, Elizabeth
Wang, Emily A.
Shavit, Shira
Formerly Incarcerated Community Health Workers Engaging Individuals Returning From Incarceration Into Primary Care: Results From the Transition Clinic Network
title Formerly Incarcerated Community Health Workers Engaging Individuals Returning From Incarceration Into Primary Care: Results From the Transition Clinic Network
title_full Formerly Incarcerated Community Health Workers Engaging Individuals Returning From Incarceration Into Primary Care: Results From the Transition Clinic Network
title_fullStr Formerly Incarcerated Community Health Workers Engaging Individuals Returning From Incarceration Into Primary Care: Results From the Transition Clinic Network
title_full_unstemmed Formerly Incarcerated Community Health Workers Engaging Individuals Returning From Incarceration Into Primary Care: Results From the Transition Clinic Network
title_short Formerly Incarcerated Community Health Workers Engaging Individuals Returning From Incarceration Into Primary Care: Results From the Transition Clinic Network
title_sort formerly incarcerated community health workers engaging individuals returning from incarceration into primary care: results from the transition clinic network
topic Public Health
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8376286/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34422744
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2021.681128
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