The Bellwether Collaborative
for Health Justice

TCN PATHS is a Justice Community Opioid Innovations Network  (JCOIN) study in collaboration with Duke University, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Yale Univesrity, The University of Puerto Rico, The Hennepin Research Institute, University of Rochester, University of Connecticut, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, and the University of Miami, aims to improve health outcomes for justice involved persons with Opioid Use Disorder (OUD).

 

Opioid overdose is the leading cause of death, and a common cause of morbidity, after release from jail. Recently, because medications for OUD effectively reduced relapse, recidivism and overdose, several jails have started to treat OUD with medications.However, OUD treatment discontinuation upon release is a persistent problem.

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Most people with OUD leaving jail face housing instability, food insecurity, and transportation barriers, which can affect OUD treatment engagement and retention. Upon release, they also lack social support, often returning to deleterious social networks.  Given these barriers, the regulations and policies of addiction treatment centers, community corrections, and community health centers that serve people with OUD recently released from jail may worsen treatment engagement.

 

The long-term goal of the study is to reduce morbidity and mortality from OUD among justice-involved individuals. The overall objective is to assess whether the Transitions Clinic Network (TCN), which provides enhanced primary care for people released from incarceration in 30 community health centers in the United States, improves the opioid cascade.