Providing Cell Phones and Peer Support is Effective at Engaging People After Release from Custody in to Hepatitis C Care (PID155)

2.30pm – 3pm EDT, 25 October 2023 ‐ 30 mins

Workshop Session

For jails and other pretrial or remand correctional settings, short durations of stay in custody are often a barrier to providing effective healthcare and other supports to people who experience incarceration. In order to address this, connection to care and services upon release to the community is essential, however lack of stable housing and consistent contact number in the community makes this challenging. The 'Test Link Call' (TLC) project was founded in British Columbia, Canada, to address this, and provides a cell phone with a free 6 month plus linkage to a Peer Health Mentor to support individuals leaving provincial custody to connect with hepatitis C virus treatment and care in the community. The project leads will describe the model of care and outcomes from TLC project after the first 2 years of operation, as well as plans for current and future expansion to other chronic health conditions.