Open AccessEngaging “seldom heard” groups in research and intervention development: Offender mental health
Author(s) -
Taylor Charlie,
Gill Laura,
Gibson Andy,
Byng Richard,
Quinn Cath
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
health expectations
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.314
H-Index - 74
eISSN - 1369-7625
pISSN - 1369-6513
DOI - 10.1111/hex.12807
Subject(s) - intervention (counseling) , relevance (law) , openness to experience , psychology , experiential knowledge , population , public relations , mental health , resource (disambiguation) , economic justice , medical education , criminal justice , medicine , nursing , social psychology , political science , computer network , philosophy , environmental health , criminology , epistemology , computer science , law , psychotherapist
Background People subject to the criminal justice system often have substantially different life‐experiences from the general population. Patient and public involvement ( PPI ) of “seldom heard” groups provides valuable experiential knowledge, enhancing research. Objective To share our jointly developed techniques to ensure the meaningful engagement and contribution of people with lived experience of the criminal justice system ( PWLECJS ) in research, trial science, intervention theory development and dissemination. Methods Commitment to adequate financial resources, appropriate staff skills and adequate time were combined with previous learning. PWLECJS were approached through local community organizations. A group was established and met fortnightly for ten months in an unthreatening environment and had a rolling membership. Ongoing engagement was promoted by the group taking responsibility for the rules, interactive and accessible activities, feeding back tangible impacts, ongoing contact, building a work ethic, joint celebrations, sessions with individual academic researchers and pro‐actively managed endings. Results The Peer Researchers contributed to study documents, training academic researchers, research data collection and analysis, intervention delivery and theory development and trial science. The Peer Researchers gained in confidence and an improved sense of self‐worth. The Academic Researchers gained skills, knowledge and an increased openness to being challenged. Discussion and conclusions PWLECJS can be meaningful included in health research and intervention development. The key elements required are listed. Challenges included differences in priorities for timescales and dissemination, resource limitations and the use of Peer Researchers’ names. Further research is required to understand what might be of relevance for other “seldom heard” groups.