While working as an Army medic for the U.S. Special Forces and a member of the U.S. Marine Corps Infantry for 21 years, Noah Claypool had a moment of self-discovery. He knew he liked connecting with others on a personal level, and, through that connection, he wanted to help people make a difference in their lives.
The desire stuck with him after leaving the military and opened a path to a profession in healthcare. Specifically, he ended up enrolling in the UNLV School of Integrated Health Sciences’ occupational therapy doctorate program.
“I was trying to decide between healthcare professions, and OT spoke to me more,” said Claypool, ’23 OTD, who works as a licensed occupational therapist in Southern Nevada. “It was very qualitative, and I liked the fact that I can have conversations with somebody. And while you’re doing that, you can learn more about what they want to achieve and how we can get them there. When you look at someone holistically, it’s much more complex.”
Helping Others Build a Pathway to Success
In his third year as an occupational therapy student, Claypool came across statistics that would become the impetus for his capstone project. He’d found that over 600,000 Americans are released from prison each year, and within three years of their release, two-thirds are rearrested and 50 percent end up reincarcerated.
“For us, occupation means any activity that occupies your mind,” said Claypool. "The goal is to help people overcome physical, mental, or social challenges to live self sufficiently. If someone’s meaningful activity is reintegrating to be a functioning member of society, how do we get them there?”
So, in collaboration with the non-profit Hope 4 Prisoners, he developed an Incarceration, Transition, Emotional Resilience (ITER) program.
The nine-week program for people in prison begins with the foundations of mental health. From there, they learn about different personality traits to better understand their strengths and weaknesses.
“Occupational therapy, as a holistic profession, looks at the strengths and weaknesses of the whole person and provides direction, intervention, and opportunity for success,” said Donnamarie Krause, director of UNLV’s occupational therapy program. “These building blocks are part of the occupational therapy lens and are a big part of ITER.”
Once the group becomes comfortable, they dive into more vulnerable conversations around racism, culture, religion, and sexual orientation.
Participants are then tasked with developing a long-term goal, typically one they hope to achieve one to three years after they are released, and identifying key factors that will help them achieve it.
“We break down these goals in multiple steps. You bring up hypotheticals and work through the uncertainties. It helps them deal with setbacks,” Claypool said. “You hope for the best and prepare for the worst.”
The course culminates with the group creating plans for how they will navigate the first two days after being released, a critical timeline in the reintegration process.
“This could be setting up a 12-step meeting, looking for employment, or even just buying deodorant from CVS,” Claypool said. “The transition is the most important step. If you start off overwhelmed, it’s easy to slip into negative behaviors.”
Claypool added that creating a 48-hour plan allows them to take ownership and responsibility for how they will manage the obstacles after being released.
A Lasting Impact
Since its implementation, Claypool’s reintegration program has blossomed into something much bigger and more impactful than he planned. It is now accredited through the Nevada Department of Corrections and is expanding into more facilities.
He's also recruited a handful of UNLV occupational therapy students to assist him with the program. And, while he acknowledged that there is no easy solution to fixing America’s incarceration problem, Claypool believes the power of listening can go a long way in solving it.
“When you help people understand the meaning behind a decision, they are more likely to listen,” he said. “So often in society, we are told what to do without any sort of justification, and most people don’t adapt well to that. Our environments make us into who we are. Humans are complicated, and our society is complicated."
