# Recovery Finance: Financial health and mental health after incarceration

> **NIH NIH R01** · YALE UNIVERSITY · 2022 · $418,750

## Abstract

Project Summary
People who experience incarceration and have mental health challenges are disproportionately Black and
Latinx, and low-income. This group experiences disproportionate financial hardship regardless of incarceration
due to racism and other forms of discrimination, with associated negative health outcomes. If incarcerated,
financial hardship worsens, creating barriers to community reentry. Support is provided to help people with
income from employment and/or disability benefits, but less attention is paid to aspects of finances including
problem debt, poor credit, and barriers accessing banking institutions. These financial issues have a direct
impact on health, create barriers to employment and housing, stress social networks, contribute to feelings of
exclusion and contribute to recidivism, all of which are health determinants. Financial capability programs
including one-on-one coaching and access to safe and affordable financial products can improve low-income
people's financial well-being and mental health, especially when they integrate into existing services, and
partner to work towards reform of laws and policies to address upstream causes of financial difficulties.
 This project's goal is to intervene at the community level to reduce financial difficulties of individuals
with incarceration histories and mental health challenges, who are predominantly Black and Latinx. We will use
Community Based Participatory Research (CBPR) methods to achieve the following specific aim: 1) Change
community level determinants that impact financial well-being and health of the target group by training existing
service provider including: i) community-based financial capability providers to be able to address financial
difficulties of the target group; ii) service providers along the criminal justice pathway to be able to provide
basic financial guidance to target group; iii) financial institution staff to reduce discrimination related to financial
consequences of justice-involvement and mental illness. We will also support community collaborations
working for legal/policy reform that impacts finances of target group. 2) Use mixed methods to assess impact
on community determinants, measuring integration of financial capability support into existing services, ability
of financial coaches to support target group, access to financial products, attitudes, knowledge and behavior of
bank staff, strength of community collaborations, and progress towards changes in laws and policies. We will
assess impact on individuals by measuring target mechanisms (financial skills, self-efficacy and behavior)
hypothesized to mediate the relationship between financial capability support and primary outcomes including
financial well-being and other health determinants (employment, housing, social support, mental health
supports, and belonging), secondary outcomes (health and recidivism) and mediators between primary and
secondary outcomes (hope, empowerment, and mast...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10608577
- **Project number:** 1R01MD018255-01
- **Recipient organization:** YALE UNIVERSITY
- **Principal Investigator:** Chyrell Denise Bellamy
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2022
- **Award amount:** $418,750
- **Award type:** 1
- **Project period:** 2022-09-22 → 2026-05-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10608577

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10608577, Recovery Finance: Financial health and mental health after incarceration (1R01MD018255-01). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-24 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10608577. Licensed CC0.

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