Interprofessional Student Team Creates Harm Reduction Kits for Individuals After Incarceration
Interprofessional Student Poster Description: Basic needs that residents reentering the community require are overlooked. Cumberland County Jail (CCJ) provides individuals reentering with the same items that they had on them upon their arrival. Residents reenter the community without the resources they need to support their overall wellbeing. Given the high rates of individuals reentering with SUD, providing individuals with lifesaving materials is exigent. Of the 632 confirmed overdoses, 77% (n =475) were caused by fentanyl or fentanyl analogs (Table 5). According to The Lancet Public Health (2022), The inclusion of naloxone, fentanyl testing strips, and harm reduction resources aims to combat the high rates of overdoses experienced by the reentry community. The aim of this project was to create 200 harm reduction reentry bags to provide to individuals reentering the community and 50 wellness bags to correctional officers at CCJ. Providing reentry bags is to support the success of individuals being released from jail, who are frequently not provided with the resources and materials needed to aid their reintegration.
To obtain a better understanding of needs, we conducted a focus group with both male and female residents at CCJ. Residents expressed they found these bags to be useful and they gave insight into what specific items will be the most useful for their success. Based on their responses, we created a detailed list of items to include in bags for each resident. We hope to conduct focus groups with residents that have come back into incarceration so that we can learn more about what supplies they found to be useful and other supplies that they don’t think are necessary. Our goal is to continue this project in the future through funding from other grants. We have applied to a grant that will allow us to continue to purchase supplies that will continue these effort and supply more harm reduction bags to the Cumberland County Jail
