Brown Carlie A, Hickey J Scott, Buck David S
Healthcare for the Homeless–Houston (HHH), Department of Family and Community Medicine, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas 77098, USA.
J Health Care Poor Underserved. 2013 May;24(2):435-43. doi: 10.1353/hpu.2013.0063.
The Jail Inreach Project was initiated in 2007 as a pilot program by Healthcare for the Homeless-Houston, an FQHC serving homeless individuals in Harris County, Texas, as a collaborative effort with the Harris County Sheriff's Office and the Mental Health Mental Retardation Authority of Harris County. It addresses the disproportionate number of homeless individuals with behavioral health diagnoses cycling through the Harris County Jail without provisions for continuity of care. Throughout the years, several evaluations have been conducted to inform programmatic planning and assess the success of the program on affecting patterns of recidivism of mentally ill homeless clients being served. Findings reinforce the importance of linking releasees to services immediately upon release as a measure for breaking the cycle of repeated incarceration and chronic homelessness. This paper illuminates characteristics of a successful intervention by examining three program evaluations conducted at different times in the program's history. It further illustrates how program evaluation has been utilized to help shape the program design and related policies.
“监狱内服务项目”于2007年由休斯顿无家可归者医疗保健组织发起，作为一个试点项目。该组织是一家为德克萨斯州哈里斯县无家可归者提供服务的联邦合格健康中心，它与哈里斯县警长办公室以及哈里斯县精神健康与智力障碍管理局合作开展此项目。该项目旨在解决大量患有行为健康问题的无家可归者在哈里斯县监狱进进出出，却没有连续性护理安排的问题。多年来，已经进行了几次评估，以指导项目规划，并评估该项目在影响所服务的患有精神疾病的无家可归客户的累犯模式方面的成效。研究结果强化了一个重要性，即释放人员一获释就立即与服务机构建立联系，这是打破反复监禁和长期无家可归循环的一项措施。本文通过审视在该项目历史上不同时间进行的三项项目评估，阐明了一项成功干预措施的特点。它进一步说明了项目评估是如何被用来帮助塑造项目设计和相关政策的。
