1 minute read
POLICY RECOMMENDATIONS Human Health
Policy Recommendation 7:
State policymakers can work with their health, human services and justice systems to expand telehealth services to individuals, including justice involved individuals in need of behavioral and substance use disorder health care. States could monitor and assess the efficacy and cost savings of expanded telehealth services.
The Human Health Subcommittee approved this recommendation citing a desire to critically examine how behavioral and substance use disorder services might best be delivered to justice-involved individuals, especially in rural areas where resources for such services may be limited.
increased by 24% among kids ages 5 to11 and 31% among adolescents ages 12 to17, compared with 2019.4 In many areas, there are not enough child psychiatrists to meet the behavioral health needs of young people.5 Telehealth could be used to plug these access gaps.
State Examples
In Texas, the prisoner health operation conducts 127,000 telemedicine visits a year with inmates in the 83 Texas correctional facilities it tends to.6 About three-quarters of these visits are for mental health or primary care. All behavioral health appointments are conducted via telemedicine.
In Indiana, the Department of Corrections uses telehealth programs to help treat the chronically ill.7 This telehealth option helps provide onsite specialist care in a safe and secure environment that was not available in the past.
Additional Resources
The Council of State Governments State Leader Policy Brief: Human Health (2022) — https://web.csg.org/csghealthystates/ wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2022/05/Healthy-States-National-TaskForce-Policy-Brief-Strategies-for-Improving-Health-Equity.pdf
Annual Meeting of The Council of State Governments Southern Legislative Conference in Oklahoma City — https://web.csg.org/ csghealthystates/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2022/08/CSG-HealthyStates-National-Task-Force-Human-Health-Subcommittee-MeetingReport-July-2022.pdf
Three Things to Know About Implementing Telehealth in Correctional Facilities, CSG Justice Center (2021) — https://csgjusticecenter.org/2021/04/12/three-things-to-know-about-implementing-telehealth-in-correctional-facilities/
According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, the number of people held in state and federal prisons or jails was over 1.7 million in 2020.1 To incarcerate these individuals, taxpayers spend about $80.7 billion a year.2
A variety of factors, including a high prevalence of mental health challenges and substance use disorder in this population, leaves justice-involved individuals particularly vulnerable upon release from detainment. When these health issues go unaddressed, the chance of recidivism significantly increases, as does the cost of incarceration. In a 2017 survey, nearly 66% of respondents said that they never received behavioral health counseling while incarcerated.3 Telehealth could be a way to connect justice involved individuals to life improving behavioral health care before release, especially in rural areas where the number of care providers is more limited by smaller population size and the distribution of resources over large swaths of space. Telehealth may also be used as a tool to connect more youth to critical behavioral health services. Between March and October 2020, the proportion of mental health-related emergency department visits
