Public policy, & the politics of identity: The hidden barriers to services for people with serious mental illness returning from jail

Purpose: Data from a case study of a reentry program for people with serious mental illness leaving jail will show how policies' surrounding applications for welfare benefits and government issued identification join together to create hidden barriers to treatment services. Methods: Ethnographic research methods were used to examine how access to mental health treatment services was negotiated for people with serious mental illness leaving jail. Results: People with serious mental illness leaving jail can't get welfare benefits when they fail to produce government-issued photo identification. Yet, access to these documents depends on a person's ability to navigate circular policies that predicate access to government issued photo identification on the presence of other forms of government issued identification. These policies often create insurmountable roadblocks for people with mental illness leaving jail because they frequently lose all of their possessions during their incarceration, leaving them with no way to prove their identity upon release. Implications: The policies described above create barriers to services for people with serious mental illness because these individuals often depend on welfare benefits to pay for services in the community. But the circular processes involved in obtaining identity documents create insurmountable roadblocks for people whose lives are characterized by poverty, and unstable and disorganized living arrangements. Careful examination of these policies is critical in a political climate where new immigration and anti-terrorism legislation is tightening the connection between the receipt of welfare and proof of identity, while making it harder to obtain identity documents.