Lauren Kirchner explains that, even when services like counseling or medication are available, former inmates with mental health issues often do not seek them out. When researcher Amy Wilson asked inmates leaving jail about what they would need, 70 percent said “housing,” 59 percent said “money,” and only 23 percent said “mental health treatment”:
Getting on (or getting back on) public assistance was often vital in a successful re-entry, Wilson says. Public assistance registration is a long and onerous process, for anyone: it can include long waits in crowded offices, criminal checks, substance abuse evaluations, and medical appointments. For people suffering from serious mental illness, who have just gotten out of jail, perhaps having lost any forms of government identification that they may have had, this is especially daunting.
So people with mental illness don’t just need help with treatment for their conditions, Wilson found. They need much more practical help, first, in handling the basics. Wilson suggests, for instance, offering temporary cash and food-coupon assistance, right on the day of release, to fill what she calls the “resource gap” between jail and public assistance.
The Dish 