SynthesisHealth & justice2025
Peer support services for individuals with health-related needs reentering the community after incarceration: a scoping review of program elements and outcomes.
Synthesis in Health & justice, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 3 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
3 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Drug use among people in prison: A global review of epidemiology, harms and interventions.Addiction (Abingdon, England) · 2026Pooled it
- Pooled it
- Peer support services for individuals with health-related needs reentering the community after incarceration: a scoping review of program elements and outcomes.Health & justice · 2025Pooled it
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundPeer support services (PSS) have become increasingly formalized in many healthcare settings. While use of PSS in the criminal-legal space is expanding, no comprehensive reviews of program designs and outcomes are available to characterize current approaches. This scoping review sought to identify PSS models for individuals with health-related needs transitioning from incarceration to the community and summarize key features and outcomes related to the models.
resultsA search of PubMed, PsycInfo, Web of Science, National Criminal Justice Reference Service, Criminal Justice Abstracts, Criminal Justice Database, Embase, CINAHL, and Social Services Abstracts databases resulted in a total of 66 studies that described 49 unique PSS programs delivered at re-entry. Fifty-six of these studies also reported on implementation factors and program outcomes. Programs varied in terms of target populations, staffing, services offered, setting, and duration. Quantitative outcomes most commonly surrounded linkage to services, substance use, mental health, HIV, and recidivism. Lived experience of peers, extensive engagement with participants, participant-centered support, and collaboration between agencies were highlighted as key factors that supported program implementation, while challenges largely related to staffing and participant outreach.
conclusionsThe heterogeneity in program design and the mixed results in both quantitative and qualitative outcomes likely reflect the need for programs to be responsive to the specific communities served. This review highlights innovative approaches within the growing use of PSS to support the health-related needs of individuals reentering the community after incarceration and may guide future research, design, implementation, and evaluation of such programs in the criminal-legal space.
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What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.