The Impact of Collateral Consequences on Help-Seek

The National Institutes of Health awarded a $456K grant to Associate Professor Gina Fedoch for research that will address the growing behavioral health inequities for women with criminal records and their efforts to seek and attain behavioral health care and services. This proposed mixed-methods study builds on existing empirical work and a theoretically driven framework of help-attainment. Fedoch’s research team will examine how behavioral health, interpersonal victimization, and collateral consequences shape help-seeking and help-attainment processes for treatment and services among adult women with criminal records. 

The first phase of the study will involve women ages 25-54 with criminal records who will complete a web-based survey regarding behavioral health concerns and experiences influencing help-seeking and help-attainment. The second phase will include individual interviews that will explore the women’s trajectories of help-seeking and help-attainment, including dynamics of collateral consequences. The final phase will inform interviews with service providers, where we will probe their perspectives of organizational and provider barriers that impact women’s help-seeking and help-attainment efforts. The collective findings will identify facilitators that can improve the behavioral health and wellbeing of women with criminal records.