SNAP in Prisons

• Research type

  Research Study

• Full title

  Adapting and refining the Support Needs Approach for Patients (SNAP) to enable delivery of person-centred care to people with progressive conditions in prison

• IRAS ID

  334460

• Contact name

  Carole Gardener

• Contact email

  Carole.Gardener@uea.ac.uk

• Sponsor organisation

  University of East Anglia

• Duration of Study in the UK

  1 years, 3 months, 29 days

• Research summary

  Background
  Increasing numbers of prisoners have health conditions that worsen over time and shorten life, (e.g., heart disease and cancer). Prisoners are entitled to the same healthcare as everyone else but can miss out on support needed to live with these conditions. Best healthcare practice for those living with these conditions involves listening to, and discussing, patients’ views on where they need support and what might help. This is known as “person-centred care”. However, prison nurses and former prisoners told us this can be difficult in prisons. To address this, we will adapt and try an intervention (the Support Needs Approach for Patients: SNAP) that enables person-centred conversations for people outside prison with similar health conditions. SNAP consists of: (1) the SNAP Tool (a brief set of questions to help people consider their support needs) and (2) a conversation between the patient and clinician about their identified needs and addressing them.
  What would this involve?
  1. A literature review
  2. Discussion groups/interviews with imprisoned patients (or former imprisoned patients) to adapt the SNAP Tool (24 participants)
  3. Discussion groups/interviews with prison-based healthcare professionals, prison officers, imprisoned patients and former imprisoned patients to consider how SNAP (the whole intervention) might work in prisons (16 participants)
  4. Trying the adapted SNAP in 2-3 prisons involving 6-9 healthcare professionals and 40-60 patients. Interviews with patients, healthcare professionals and prison staff will explore: 1) whether the adapted SNAP is acceptable to prisoners/healthcare and 2) the best way to test it within a wider range of prisons.

  The 4-task study will run for 24 months.
  Task 2-4 participants will be recruited by a prison research consultancy (EP:IC), participating prisons and via study networks.
  A Patient and Public Involvement group will support all study activities.
  Study funders: Marie Curie
  

• REC name

  East of England - Essex Research Ethics Committee

• REC reference

  25/EE/0101

• Date of REC Opinion

  17 Jun 2025

• REC opinion

  Further Information Favourable Opinion