The Occupational Therapy (OT) Program has been awarded $264,614 by the Jacob and Valeria Langeloth Foundation to help female inmates who have psychiatric disorders improve their ability to manage their healthcare needs once they are out of prison.

The two-year grant will provide for programs and services at the Riverside Correctional Facility, a medium security facility in Northeast Philadelphia.  The grant targets female inmates with diagnosed psychiatric disorders to improve their understanding of both their mental and physical healthcare needs, reinforce their skills for maintaining healthy habits and help them learn to negotiate with community health providers upon their release from prison. 

“The goal is to help the women manage their day-to-day living and healthcare needs and their children’s needs once they are out of prison,” said Susan Haiman, associate professor of OT.  The project, called PhISH for Philadelphia Inmate Services and Health Care, grew out of a class Prof. Haiman teaches that requires students to seek new ways to help provide care in the community. 

The heart of the program will be a series of eight sessions led by OT students in which groups of up to 10 prisoners will learn about such issues as healthcare risks, prevention and protection, reproductive and gynecological health, sexually transmitted diseases and safe sex practices, substance abuse and mental health issues.

The grant also requires that the program developers produce a trainers’ guide and toolkit to help others put in place similar programs.  “The goal is for this to be a model that could be duplicated elsewhere,” said Cathy Piersol, associate professor and director of the OT Program.  “We will be helping the women in Philadelphia and producing a product that will help those in other areas, too.”

“This is an exciting opportunity to develop a new and innovative program to serve the needs of this special population,” said Matt Baker, dean of the School of Science and Health.  

OT students will perform functional assessments to gauge each prisoner’s ability to perform certain tasks.  The program will be overseen by a full-time coordinator with involvement from OT faculty, and program outcomes will be assessed by an outside evaluator. 

Through PhISH, inmates will be connected to community healthcare providers prior to their release to help them transition more effectively to life outside prison.  The program’s community partners include the City of Philadelphia Prison System, First Judicial District of the Pennsylvania Court of Common Pleas, Philadelphia Department of Behavioral Health and Mental Retardation Services and JEVS Human Services of Philadelphia.

The grant focuses on female inmates both because there is a lack of data on this prison population and a lack of programs that address the unique needs of women prisoners, according to the grant submission.  The first phase of the grant, which runs through December 2009, will start with inmate assessments and the first group sessions will likely begin next summer. 

“This is a very unusual focus, as most programs for inmates in the United States focus on male inmates rather than female inmates and fewer still focus on women in local facilities,” said Jeff Senese, vice president for Academic Affairs.  “It is also important that Philadelphia University is involved with the Philadelphia Prison System in a cooperative and mutually beneficial project.”

Prof. Haiman also noted that providing services in less traditional settings is at the forefront of OT practice these days.  “This is an emerging practice area outside of traditional hospital and rehabilitation facilities,” she said of the PhISH program.  “And prisons have been identified as an area of need where we could be of great service.”