Rapid Review of Literature Reporting the Experience of Patient and Public Involvement in Prison and Forensic Mental Health Research

Health research authorities around the world are increasingly committed to embedding public involvement in health and social care research. However, such involvement in internationally published prison and forensic mental health research remains rare. It is therefore particularly important to understand how people are experiencing collaborative research in this field, barriers they may encounter and how these might be overcome. The aim of this review is to explore how academic, practitioner and lived-experience researchers have experienced collaborating on prison and forensic mental health research since a previous review of the topic in 2016. A rapid review of literature was completed by searching three databases (MEDLINE, EMBASE and PsycINFO) between 2016 and July 2023 in addition to Google and Google Scholar searches and hand searching the reference lists of all screened-in documents. We used Reflexive Thematic Analysis to review the screened-in papers. We had lived-experience involvement in this study, which is outlined in our Supporting Information. The database search returned 733 unique articles. Internet searches revealed 10 potentially relevant documents. 20 documents were eligible for inclusion; 15 journal articles, three book chapters, a whole book and a PhD thesis. In the analysis, four overarching themes were developed: the positive psychological impact on lived-experience researchers; it is interpersonally, emotionally and practically challenging; facilitators of the collaborative research process; and positive impact of involvement on the research. Our findings build on the previous review by providing evidence that collaborating on research can have a positive psychological impact on people with lived experience in this setting. It also documents further challenges that are unique to the forensic setting. There was minimal reporting of the experiences of forensic mental health patients involved in research; most included documents focused the experiences of current or former prisoners. Further studies in the topic area are still needed, which utilise a research method to analyse the experiences of conducting collaborative research.