Division of Psychology and Mental Health, School of Health Sciences, University of Manchester, Manchester, UK.
Manchester Academic Health Science Centre, MAHSC, Manchester, UK.
Health Expect. 2018 Feb;21(1):100-109. doi: 10.1111/hex.12590. Epub 2017 Jun 22.
Suicide is the leading cause of avoidable death in prisons worldwide and suicide prevention is an international priority. Consequently, there is an urgent need to develop evidence-based treatments. We conducted a randomized controlled trial of a novel suicide prevention psychological therapy for male prisoners. To promote ecological validity by addressing the "real-world" situation of suicidal prisoners, we involved a consultant group of ex-offenders with past experience of being suicidal during imprisonment. Service user involvement in prison research is challenging and underdeveloped.
We aimed to investigate the ex-offender service user consultants' experiences of being involved in the research.
Individual qualitative interviews were conducted and analysed using an Interpretative Phenomenology Analysis (IPA) framework.
SETTING/PARTICIPANTS: The study was conducted at a university in North England, UK, comprising four ex-offenders with experience of being suicidal during past imprisonments.
Two superordinate themes were identified: "Working Together" depicted participants' perceptions of the pivotal role of good relationships with researchers, and "Journey of Change" outlined how participants' involvement in the research impacted on their personal lives.
Little is known about how to successfully involve ex-offender service users in research. Our results indicate the conditions necessary for successfully engaging ex-offender service users in research and have important implications for improving the quality of prison research.
Involving forensic service users in research is feasible and should be encouraged, as despite certain challenges, it is highly rewarding both for the research and the ex-offender service users.
自杀是全球监狱中可避免死亡的主要原因，预防自杀是国际优先事项。因此，迫切需要开发基于证据的治疗方法。我们对一种针对男性囚犯的新型预防自杀心理疗法进行了随机对照试验。为了通过解决有自杀倾向的囚犯的“现实世界”情况来提高生态有效性，我们邀请了一组有过在狱期间自杀经历的前罪犯顾问参与。服务用户参与监狱研究具有挑战性且不发达。
我们旨在调查前罪犯服务用户顾问参与研究的经验。
采用解释现象学分析（IPA）框架对个人定性访谈进行了分析。
地点/参与者：该研究在英国英格兰北部的一所大学进行，参与者包括四名有过在过去监禁期间自杀经历的前罪犯。
确定了两个上级主题：“共同工作”描绘了参与者对与研究人员建立良好关系的关键作用的看法，“变革之旅”概述了参与者参与研究如何影响他们的个人生活。
对于如何成功地让前罪犯服务用户参与研究知之甚少。我们的研究结果表明了成功吸引前罪犯服务用户参与研究的必要条件，并对提高监狱研究质量具有重要意义。
让法医服务用户参与研究是可行的，应该鼓励这样做，因为尽管存在某些挑战，但这对研究和前罪犯服务用户都有很高的回报。
