Sherry McKee, PhD, professor of psychiatry, served on a technical advisory panel for a new guide for best practices for re-entry for people with mental health and substance use issues.
The guide was produced by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), which leads federal efforts to improve behavioral health in the United States.
The guide features a best practices program directed by McKee called “Living-Free,” which helps adults who use substances to successfully transition from incarceration back to their communities and families in Greater New Haven. The program provides recovery supports to women and men with the goal of reducing recidivism.
Before 2016 there was no program in the New Haven area that focused on helping those with substance use disorders transition from incarceration back to their communities.
Living-Free uses a collaborative care model, which pairs addiction and mental health care with primary care and peer mentorship. Individualized treatment plans focus on the delivery of trauma-informed, evidence-based behavior and pharmacological treatments. The program is located at the Forensic Drug Diversion clinic, which is an outpatient clinic of the Connecticut Mental Health Center.
“Importantly, we start the treatment process prior to release from incarceration, to start to connect with our clients, and to understand what recovery supports they will need to ensure their successful transition to their community,” McKee said.
The program provides medication for opioid and alcohol use disorder in addition to medications to manage psychiatric symptoms. It promotes pro-social behaviors to increase the overall health of participants and provides peer support to help newly released citizens find housing, jobs, and educational opportunities.
Connecticut continues to have a pronounced substance abuse problem. In 2020 it ranked 10th in the United States in drug overdose deaths with New Haven County having the highest rate of drug overdose deaths in Connecticut.
According to its literature, Living-Free has been effective in reducing recidivism. In the first 200 participants, rates of new arrest were 4.6 percent and 0 percent for a new incarceration at 6-months from release, which were lower than the state averages (19 and 21 percent, respectively).
Living-Free is a partnership between Yale, the Connecticut Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services, and the Connecticut Department of Correction.