A Novel Reentry Hotline Led by Community Health Workers to Address the Health Needs of People Returning From Incarceration: Transitions Clinic Network, California, June 2020‒June 2023.

Divakaran, Bethany; Steiner, Anna; Lin, Sidney; Fennix, Sharon; Shavit, Shira · Am J Public Health · 2025

other · Level V

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Abstract

Community members returning from incarceration experience serious health disparities, which intensified during the COVID-19 pandemic. In response, community health workers with lived experience of incarceration in the Transitions Clinic Network established a California reentry health care hotline to support time-sensitive linkages to postrelease medical care. From June 2020 to June 2023, the hotline supported 1276 people transitioning from incarceration. Lessons from this peer-led public health intervention are relevant for states utilizing Medicaid waivers to improve health equity for justice-involved populations. (<i>Am J Public Health</i>. 2025;115(4):477-480. https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2024.307969).

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