STONES

This role doesn’t fully click into action until your friend is released. (There’s room to lean into, during these pre-release months, planning the Welcome Home Event.) So get situated, reach out to your friend, and make a timeline together.

Once your friend gets out, during that full first month of getting plugged into the land of the living—that’s when this role requires a good amount of focused time and energy navigating multiple health systems: insurance, mental health, drug treatment classes, primary care.

You’ll see how many calls, appointments, forms, insurances, evaluations are needed—and why so many re-entering folks get overwhelmed, and end up “violating” their requirements and neglecting their own health. These systems become “stones,” big barriers to reentry.

This is where you come in! You are the gift God has sent to walk with your friend through these systems—their wholeness and health is important to God and to us.

Here we go:

Health Insurance

In Washington State, thankfully, almost everyone releasing from prison—with no income—qualifies for free health insurance (usually called AppleHealth). Ask your incarcerated friend if they can apply for this before release, as is normal in many facilities. If not, that’s your first stop their first week out:

DSHS Office (dshs.wa.gov). This is a standard (essential) first visit anyway, when getting on your feet. Find the office, head over there together, take a number, wait, tell stories and laugh as you sit in the lobby.

Go with your friend when their number is called. Make sure he or she asks for and leaves with:

• Health insurance set up and card in hand

• Any cash and/or food benefits available

• If available, a voucher for DOL (Dept of Licensing) ID/License costs

Mental Health

Hopefully the upcoming Mental Health and Trauma modules will open rich conversations between your team and your friend about these important realities that so many of us face.

Meds

Ask your friend if they have any mental health meds (prescription) they are taking while inside prison. Take note of this. So many men and women are released from prison with only 30 days’ worth of their prescription—but they don’t set up mental healthcare that first month, to continue some form of their medication.

We’ve seen many folks relapse into their old addictions in their second month out of prison, only to later find out that they had run out of their mental health meds. This hidden factor deserves our attention ahead of time. The first month Is overwhelming, and no one else in their life is helping them continue in mental healthcare.

Some guys have told us, “I don’t want to be on those meds. They’re just trying to sedate me in there.” Maybe so. We often counter with, “That may be true, but your brain is gonna go on a bender if you go off the meds cold turkey. Out here, mental healthcare isn’t trying to numb you like prison does. Let’s get you a better evaluation and the care you deserve, so you don’t struggle more than you have to!”

Mental Health Evaluation

This part is often required—by probation, anyway.

Look up a local mental health agency (there’s usually a couple, for low-income clients). Sit down together and call to set up an evaluation as soon as you can. Put it in both your calendars. Go together (give them a ride). They might get recommended weekly meetings with a therapist, or groups/classes. Exited? Great! Bummer? Encourage them that it’s OK. It’s part of healing—and if required, part of staying out of prison!

PRIMARY CARE

You may need to do this immediately, as some mental health agencies don’t prescribe meds. You can help coordinate their agency’s evaluation with a doctor’s visit, to get their prescription in order.

Most men and women leaving prison have never had regular care with a doctor, or “primary care provider.” This will take some more time sitting down making calls together: call some local doctors’ offices you (or your team) trust, to find one that takes your friend's public health insurance. Find one? Hooray! Schedule another appointment.

That’s where you can go together, bring any prescription to be refilled or adjusted, AND bring any other health concerns. Get a full checkup! Invite them to see this not as another inspection, or requirement, but as treating their bodies to the same care as a good car: get a full checkup and all the repair they deserve!

If you’ve raised kids, you’ve done this before. Sadly, too many boys and girls grow up without parents offering this kind of attentive care. You are part of a deep redemption at this point.

Chemical Dependency

This is one of the most common requirements by prison probation: go get a drug evaluation, and go to classes or groups. Ask your friend if this will be required as part of their probation. And if so, you’ll help them every step of the way, no problem.

Most towns have both a mental health agency and a drug treatment (“chemical dependency”) agency (sometimes the same office, often called “Behavioral Health”).

Same thing: sit down together that first month, call the agency and set up an evaluation. Mark your calendars. Go together on that day.

If the evaluation recommends several weeks of classes or appointments, that’s a normal part of reentry. Lots of appointments—on top of all the courts and studying to get your driver’s license, with your other team member. Which is why we fundraise as a congregation to help pay early rent costs—so they can focus on all this reentry work as their full-time job the first month or two!

You can help your friend by reminding them that all these appointments are normal, worth it, and necessary. You’re here to help with energy, rides, and coordinating their (increasingly full) calendar.

Those are the four basic health systems to navigate with your friend. To review:

• Health insurance (DSHS)

• Mental health (agency)

• Primary care (find a doctor)

• Chemical dependency (agency)

Most of this will come together in a storm of appointments and rides that first month or two. You have space in your brain and emotions to keep track of these four systems. You’ve done some of these for yourself, already. But for someone undergoing transition from prison, it’s overwhelming. Your presence, doing it together, is a miracle.

After that, celebrate what you’ve done together. Relax. Go out to lunch.

It can feel like burdensome “social work”—but in our years of doing this, we’ve found the greatest conversations, trust-building, laughter, and opening up to real stories happens when going to these appointments together. Your team will learn more about this mystery in the Accompaniment Through the System module, when the time comes. Just remember that this work is front lines of deeper relationship and ministry.

BONUS HEALTH

Ongoing Resurrection & Repair

As time goes on, months after your friend releases, they may be more aware of more repair their bodies deserve—after years of neglect on the streets and in prison.

Willy had broken bones in his hand, from an old crime. His hand never healed well in prison. His team helped him make the calls, get x-rays, talk to Labor & Industries for some coverage, and they set up his surgery. The team coordinated a Meal Train for the church to come around their beloved community member after surgery. It was beautiful.

Roxanne was now clean and sober, graduating from a recovery home, and working—but she was shy about smiling. Years of meth addiction had taken a toll on her teeth. For her, resurrection meant working with her health providers—and her support community—to get new teeth through her dental insurance! Now her smile is as huge as her heart.

If your incarcerated/releasing person gets this far out of the underground, it’s not uncommon to loop in members of the congregation to help accompany and enjoy this resurrection journey. As the Health Systems lead, you will be the best point person to direct and coordinate these new players. Have fun!