Women Transforming Their Lives In Prison

For the tens of thousands of individuals struggling with opioid addiction in the United States, breaking their drug habit is never easy, and is often inhibited even by fellow addicts in recovery programs who stigmatize the use of prescribed medications to aid the recovery process, despite their measured success. In Philadelphia, a group called Porch Light is the city's first ever 12-step program to embrace those on a medication-assisted recovery journey, helping to break stigmas and encourage those on the path to a clean start.

The Neem Foundation brings intensive counseling and 1-on-1 therapy to survivors who escaped the horrific violence of Boko Haram, a terrorist group in northeastern Nigeria. With months of aid and tough conversations, the organization attempts to reunite women and children who fled the violence with their families, many of whom shun the Boko Haram escapees.

Connecting LGTBQ+ teens with peers and adults for support can help reduce depression and the risk of suicide. Organizations like the Four Corners Rainbow Youth Center in Durango, Colorado, and the Gender and Sexuality Resource Center at Fort Lewis College provide safe spaces where youth feel welcome and supported by a network of peers and adults. The centers also act as social spaces where youth, parents, and their communities can come together.

Crafting resilience requires coping with emotions, not ignoring them. With those who are affected by suicide facing a 65 percent higher risk of attempting suicide themselves, organizations like the Grief Center, LOSS, and Heartbeat are working to reduce the time that people suffering from emotional trauma wait to seek help. The organizations bring grief counseling services, and even emotional first aid, to those experiencing loss in southwest Colorado.

For many people who were deported to Mexico after decades living in the United States, the city of Nogales provides a renewed sense of community. The city is home to the Centro de Sueños rehabilitation center, or Dream Center, a place where many Mexican individuals deported by the U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement find shelter, food, support, jobs, and new families. Built by a preacher from Phoenix, the Dream Center gives participants a renewed sense of hope.

The need for therapeutic support is far outstripping the rate that doctors and nurses can get through training, let alone having enough caregivers in low-income areas. However, extensive studies have proven that a community-based mental health service can be just as effective as the global north's psychotherapists. By training lay people in evidence-based therapies that cover commonalities across different forms of trauma, low- and middle-income areas can access quality mental healthcare. Multiple studies across different age groups has shown dramatic improvement in conditions like depression or PTSD.

Merging accountability with treatment promotes recovery for those charged with drug possession. In Franklin County, Ohio, the municipal court system operates a program called Helping Achieve Recovery Together. The court recovery program provides a two-year track for participants to receive mental health support from peers and the courts, with the goal of moving them from the criminal justice system and into treatment.

Freed from prison after serving at least 15 years, often much longer, for crimes committed when they were teens, a group of men holds twice-monthly Zoom meetings to lend structure and peer support to their lives during a time when COVID-19 restrictions foreclose other face-to-face meetings. Under Washington, D.C.’s Incarceration Reduction Amendment Act, 42 men have been released. At least 22 of them meet regularly to share leads on possible jobs, discuss their frustrations, and encourage each other to stay focused on the positive.

The mental health profession can lead to intense burnout, specifically for mental health professionals of color. Some facilities are launching efforts like the Stay Well program to address burnout including promoting cultural competency among all professionals, recruiting and training more practitioners of color, limiting the hours worked per week, emphasizing self-care and providing virtual work options and vacation days.

The Prisoner Correspondence Project connects LGBTQ2S+ people who are incarcerated in the United States and Canada with pen pals who are not incarcerated. The consistent communication helps combat isolation and improve mental health and rehabilitation outcomes.