FY23: Over the course of this fiscal year there have been ongoing barriers in obtaining access to the jail due to COVID restrictions and shutdowns. There also continued to be difficulty in contacting clients once they were released from the jail, and in the community. At the end of FY23 a decision was made to sunset and end this program after 6 fiscal years.

FY21: Overall Barriers/Challenges-

The main barrier for parenting is that we are still unable to reach incarcerated parents in the Worcester County Jail due to COVID-19 restrictions.   A barrier/challenge for case management is that there is still inconsistent communication with Jail staff to communicate with incarcerated parents at the Jail.  This is partly due to outbreaks of COVID-19 at the Jail, which lead to the Jail being on lock down to prevent further spread of the virus. When the Jail is on lockdown, the incarcerated parent is not able to take phone calls. WCHD management continues to discuss options with Jail management for Building Bridges to Stable Families staff to communicate with incarcerated parents by video.   

Case Managers are having a difficult time connecting with incarcerated parents once released. Case manager try to connect with the parent at least 3 times, then the case is considered "closed."

This program will provide comprehensive support services to children, families, and parents impacted by incarceration. The program will link parents that are incarcerated to resources, including mental health and substance abuse treatment, case management, housing and other local resources that will help maintain stability, and prevent recidivism once released. Parenting classes will be offered to individuals that are incarcerated as well as parents/caregivers in the community. The program will support the children and families of individuals incarcerated by providing case management services that will link families to services and children to programs that promote resilience and sustainability.

Individuals incarcerated in the local detention center, their children and the caregivers of the children; children of incarcerated parents.

FY23 First Half:  Story #1: A client who has been in the program for several years was successfully discharged from the program this quarter. This mother of 4 is a single parent due to her husband getting deported in 2019. She met her goals of completing MH intakes for her children, and purchasing a car all while working year round, and maintaining her household and bills.

Story #2: A formerly incarcerated client has been consistently engaged in SA services such as group and individual sessions and has been compliant with MAT and probation. He continues to stay employed since shortly after he was released, and was able to purchase a truck this quarter. He is very interested in applying for the welding program at Wor-Wic CC in the spring and was given information on how to apply for the program. Comments from the jail class: "I was afraid that the class would be useless, but it really helped and I appreciate it." "I feel it's a great program and it helped me and taught me a lot."

SUCCESS STORY – 

1. During Quarter 4:  One participant from the Nurturing Families class had legal issues towards the end of the class and had to take a break to deal with them.  She did show great drive, perseverance and dedication to complete the class. This class was offered through Google Classroom and Google Meet and will continue to be offered using these methods in the future. Face-to-face classes will resume when COVID-19 restrictions no longer preclude us from providing face-to-face services.

Another success story is with a formerly incarcerated parent who had completed his MH intake just prior to WCHD shutting the clinic down. The client’s first MH appointments were scheduled around the time the face-to-face clinic shut down. The client was anxious to start working on his probation requirements so Tonya coordinated with BH therapists to get client enrolled through telehealth sessions in Anger Management and BH with a therapist that he had in the past and requested. This client is currently active in these services.

2. SUCCESS STORY/DATA – There was a total of one cohort held online through Google Classrooms and Google Meet.  The community cohort had 2 participant, one of which finished the class and graduated.. The pre-test average for this cohort was 72%, and the post-test average was 87% for an improvement rate of +15%.  One out of one participants improved their test scores (100%). 
3. CHALLENGES/BARRIERS -The lack of transportation continues to be a barrier for clients and their families.  Most of the incarcerated parents do not have their driver's license and find it difficult to search for employment,  get to/from employment, engage in mental health and substance abuse services and attend probation/parole required activities.  The families struggle financially and find it financially difficult to maintain reliable transportation.  A challenge that has been consistent is communication with the incarcerated parent once they are released from jail due to not having money for a phone and/or money for minutes on their phone.

Another challenge for incarcerated parents is to complete their goals while they are still incarcerated.  If they are incarcerated more than six months while they are participating in the Building Bridges to Stable Families program, then when they accomplish a goal when they are released, this accomplishment is not tallied in the quarterly report after the six month period.  Also, many of the goals the clients (incarcerated parent and guardian) want to accomplish take longer than six months to accomplish.

Getting appropriate referrals from the Worcester County Jail has been another challenge. Prior to COVID-19, Sgt. Campbell sent a long list of referrals to Building Bridges to Stable Families of  prisoners at the Jail who have children of any age. Tonya then has to meet with each incarcerated parent and screen them to see if they are appropriate for Building Bridges to Stable Families or another program at WCHD.  This has been a lengthy process that made it difficult to get referrals processed in a timely manner.

The last challenge has been a result of the COVID-19 outbreak, closure of WCHD services in the jail and the casemanager’s telework status.  Since the start of the COVID-19 crisis, most of the work with clients has been by phone to check on client’s health and resource coordination and outreach.

In FY2021, the Worcester County LMB will work closely with program providers to develop continuity of service plan. This plan will be impactful and crucial for those vendors that are unable to meet face to face with children, youth and families. It is evident within the performance measures and program narratives that COVID-19 and teleworking has had an large impact on the way that services were delivered. This continuity plan will be required by all vendors.