The Returning Citizens Clinic: A Community-Academic Partnership.

Introduction:
Returning Citizens (RC) are individuals returning to society after being incarcerated. Within prison systems, longitudinal care for diseases is often sparse or inconsistent, and RCs have higher rates of overdose, suicide, disabilities, and physical disorders when compared to the general population.1 RCs were also found to be less likely to receive regular healthcare and preventative services.2 These disparities call for specific attention to healthcare literacy and access among RCs.

Preparing medical students to address health inequities in their community is an essential responsibility of medical educators.3 Modern medical education places great emphasis on enabling medical students to provide longitudinal care tailored to meet the needs of individual patients. Nevertheless, inadequate emphasis on correctional and post-correctional healthcare within medical school curricula results in the needs of numerous RCs being overlooked. One method by which medical schools may improve health equity for this group is by collaborating with community organizations focused on supporting RCs as they reintegrate into society. Through these community-academic partnerships, students can work hand in hand with local organizations to assist the underserved individuals in their community and deepen their understanding of population health.4,5

Under the supervision of a physician, a group of medical students founded a new student-run free clinic and community-academic partnership: The Returning Citizens Clinic (RCC). RCC has established four main objectives:
- Provide free, customized primary healthcare services to RCs via collaboration with community agencies that are already the first stop for RCs.
- Provide opportunities for medical students to engage with general and healthcare correctional staff by visiting correctional facilities, such that they may better understand the previous experiences of RCs.
- Afford medical students with an opportunity to meet and provide basic health services and health education to RCs under physician supervision.
- To offer educational symposia for medical students with presenters and facilitators working in corrections.

Outcomes:
Presenters will share the educational strategies of a newly founded medical student-run clinic, which offers free clinical and social support for RCs. During this session, participants will:
1. Participate in polling of prior knowledge
2. Be introduced to the clinic, with a focus on outreach work and educational initiatives.
3. Discuss in small groups the clinic’s medical education initiatives
4. Be invited to continue participation in discussions for future research or presentations

Interactions:
- Presenters will introduce themselves and give a brief overview of the Returning Citizens Clinic (5 minutes)
- Attendees will be polled to understand their prior knowledge of the medical and non-medical challenges faced by returning citizens (5 minutes)
- Presenters will provide a background and overview of outreach work accomplished by the Returning Citizens Clinic and the role of this clinic in medical student education (15 minutes)
- Participants will be divided into small groups with each group assigned a specific aspect of the clinic's educational initiative, based on their interests (15 minutes)
- Large group debrief and an invitation to continue discussions on educational strategies to improve advocacy for returning citizens at a national level (10 minutes)