ArticleMedicine, science, and the law2025
Developing an initial programme theory for a model of social care in prisons and on release (empowered together): A realist synthesis approach.
Article in Medicine, science, and the law, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 2 papers.
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Who cites it
2 citing papers in PubMed.
- Implementing women's sexual and reproductive health interventions in prisons: a realist review.BMJ open · 2026Review
- Women's social care provision in prison has improved but challenges remain: findings from a national survey in England eight years after the 2014 Care Act.BMC public health · 2026Article
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Authors and funding
13 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Many people are living in prison with a range of social care needs, for example, requiring support with washing, eating, getting around safely, and/or maintaining relationships. However, social care for this vulnerable group is generally inadequate. There is uncertainty and confusion about who is legally responsible for this and how it can best be provided, and a lack of integration with healthcare. We used realist-informed approaches to develop an initial programme theory (IPT) for identifying/assessing social care needs of, and providing care to, male adults in prison and on release. IPT development was an iterative process involving (a) an initial scoping of the international prison literature; (b) scoping prison and community social care policy documents and guidelines; (c) full systematic search of the international prison social care literature; (d) insights from the community social care literature; (e) stakeholder workshops. Information from 189 documents/sources and stakeholder feedback informed the IPT, which recommended that models of prison social care should be: trauma-informed; well integrated with health, criminal justice, third-sector services and families; and person-centred involving service-users in all aspects including co-production of care plans, goals, and staff training/awareness programmes. Our IPT provides an initial gold standard model for social care provision for people in prison and on release. The model, named Empowered Together, will be evaluated in a future trial and will be of interest to those working in the criminal justice system, care providers and commissioners, local authorities, housing authorities, voluntary groups, and service-users and their families.
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