Us helping us: The evolution of a peer support group for formerly incarcerated people

Will Boles; Thad Tatum; Jarrod Wall; Lauren Nguyen; Alexandria Van Dall; Claire Mulhollem; Anna Sacks; Ashley Wennerstrom; Bruce Reilly; Anjali Niyogi

doi:10.3389/fpsyt.2022.920640

Us helping us: The evolution of a peer support group for formerly incarcerated people

Front Psychiatry. 2022 Aug 2:13:920640. doi: 10.3389/fpsyt.2022.920640. eCollection 2022.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center New Orleans School of Medicine, and Harvard Kennedy School of Government, New Orleans, LA, United States.
² Formerly Incarcerated Peer Support (FIPS) Group, New Orleans, LA, United States.
³ City, Culture, and Community Program, Tulane University, New Orleans, LA, United States.
⁴ Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, New Orleans, LA, United States.
⁵ Department of Sociology, School of Liberal Arts, Tulane University, New Orleans, LA, United States.
⁶ Voice of the Experienced (VOTE), New Orleans, LA, United States.
⁷ Behavioral and Community Health Sciences, School of Public Health, New Orleans, LA, United States.
⁸ Internal Medicine and Pediatrics, Tulane University School of Medicine, New Orleans, LA, United States.

Abstract

Introduction: Physical, psychological, and emotional trauma experienced while incarcerated influences subsequent mental health outcomes. Upon release, there is a fragmented landscape of mental health services and many of the existing services do not account for the root causes of challenges faced by formerly incarcerated people (FIP). To address the unmet social, psychological, behavioral, and emotional needs of FIP in Louisiana, the Formerly Incarcerated Peer Support (FIPS) Group developed a twelve-unit curriculum in 2019.

Methods: We detail the evolution, development, and evaluation of the FIPS Group program. Additionally, we describe the community-driven process for developing the curriculum.

Results: The FIPS Group has grown from informal meetings of a handful of FIP in New Orleans, Louisiana, into a multi-state, interdisciplinary network of more than 150 stakeholders. FIPS Group has developed the only peer support curriculum we are aware of that is designed by FIP, for FIP, and uses the shared experience of incarceration and reentry as its organizing principle. Limitations of the model include the lack of pending evaluation data and challenges with technological proficiency among FIP.

Conclusions: The FIPS Group model may be generalized in a number of settings. Similar approaches may benefit the mental health of the millions of Americans involved in the criminal-legal system.

Keywords: community; incarceration; lived experience; mental health; peer support; program development; reentry.