Returning Home, Back to Community from Custodial Care: Learnings from the First Year Pilot Project Evaluation of Three Sites Around Australia

The Returning Home Back to Community from Custodial Care pilot project was designed to build a better understanding of the most appropriate model of community care to support improved health outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women leaving custody. Funding was provided by the Commonwealth Department of Health to three organisations to plan and trial care pathways that assist women with coordinated and integrated support structures to facilitate re-engagement with service providers following release. These were the Aboriginal Medical Service in Western Sydney, the Townsville-Mackay Medicare Local in Townsville and the Goldfields-Midwest Medicare Local in Geraldton, Western Australia. All teams agreed at an initial meeting that in order to be sustainable, assistance needed to strengthen women’s own capacity, resilience and support networks to create circumstances that provide meaning and direction to their future.