center for healthier living testimonials

This is where Teresa comes in with our Corrections Health Initiative program.

This means that recently released folks with chronic illnesses tend to face worse health outcomes when they leave prison, like increased viral loads of HIV. People who are transitioning out of the prison system face different barriers to healthcare: many are released without Medicaid, a primary care provider, or education on how to self-manage their chronic illness. On top of experiencing higher rates of illnesses like HIV and Hepatitis C, people who are diagnosed with a chronic illness while in prison don’t have access to the same medical care, community and familial support, or personal autonomy that non-incarcerated folks have when learning to manage a life-changing diagnosis. To set the scene for Teresa’s work: incarcerated people in the United States face more barriers to healthcare and worse health outcomes than our general population. The program Teresa leads at CAS is funded by the New York State Department of Health’s Corrections Health Initiative to connect incarcerated and recently released people in our community with HIV and Hepatitis C prevention, treatment and support. Teresa has been with CAS since 2018, serving individuals who are incarcerated in and recently released from seven facilities in the Wende hub of prisons throughout Western New York.

Teresa Lee, correctional health educator at Community Access Services (CAS) (an affiliate of Evergreen Health) believes that supporting the health and wellness of incarcerated people builds healthier communities.

Center for healthier living testimonials