Grant: Project Grant

People who have been incarcerated face significant health inequities, including higher rates of mental illness, substance use, infectious diseases, and shorter life expectancy. Yet, their perspectives are rarely included in Canadian health research. Health policies and programs are often developed for incarcerated people rather than with them, limiting effectiveness and reinforcing inequities. Existing peer engagement guidance in Canada only applies only to people with lived/living experience of substance use and does not account for the unique contexts of incarceration, leaving PLX without meaningful inclusion in research, service planning, or policy. Structural barriers- stigma, surveillance and confidentiality concerns - further restrict opportunities for engagement, with Indigenous people especially affected due to overrepresentation in the criminal legal system. To address these inequities, this project will co-develop best practice guidance (BPG) for ethical and inclusive engagement of PLX in health research to improve correctional health care in BC. Aim 1 will build capacity for engagement of PLX in health research by expanding and formalizing PERCH BC, a provincial advisory body. Aim 2 will adapt BC's Provincial Peer Engagement and Best Practices guidance, tailoring it to incarceration contexts through a scoping review, stakeholder interviews, and focus groups with PLX. Aim 3 will evaluate BPG implementation within Correctional Health Services' Model of Care using the PRISM framework. This five-year project will develop, test, and refine best practice guidance (BPG) for engaging PLX in health research. A provincial advisory group will adapt existing peer engagement guidance, which will then be evaluated in BC Correctional Health Services. Findings will be shared through publications, toolkits, training modules, and creative resources, ensuring that ethical, inclusive engagement practices are sustained and adopted throughout the BC health system and globally.