IJPDS International Journal of Population Data Science

Researchers from across Scotland have created a new dataset, RELEASE, in order to understand how people released from prison are accessing services for mental ill-health and substance use problems, including community prescriptions, specialist addiction services, mental health care, and emergency services. This new cohort, published in the International Journal of Population Data Science (IJPDS), includes all people released from Scottish prisons in 2015, and a comparison group of similar people who have not recently experienced imprisonment.

Many people who have been in prison experience mental ill-health or problems with drug and alcohol use (substance use). It is important that people can access services early on release, but little is known about patterns of access to services for mental health and substance use among people released from prison, and how this compares to similar people who haven’t been in prison.

The research team, collaborating with people who have experience of imprisonment, will address this gap in knowledge in the RELEASE study. Our retrospective observational cohort study uses linked administrative health and justice data to examine patterns of healthcare use on release from prison. Anonymised data were extracted from prison and health service records for four years post-release, and linked together.

Time was spent talking to people with experience of imprisonment, delivering support services, working in government and policy, and with other researchers, who all confirmed the importance of this work. Being imprisoned and trying to readjust to community living may contribute to worsening mental health, and substance use can be a result of trying to cope with previous trauma and other challenges in life, such as prison and release. But people recognise a number of barriers to accessing care. In Scotland, like elsewhere, people who are released from prison are much more likely to die by suicide, overdose and other health conditions linked to drug and alcohol use. This is of concern as everyone should be able to enjoy a life free from mental ill-health and substance use problems, no matter where you are from and what your previous life experiences are.

Research from other countries also suggests that people released from prison may not use primary care services as much as they could, but use emergency services more than other people. There hasn’t been much work looking at the role of mental health or substance use in this. Better understanding these issues could help to change services so that they are easier to access for people released from prison.

Lead analyst of the paper, Dr Richard Kjellgren, from the Salvation Army Centre for Addiction Services and Research at the University of Stirling said, “We will analyse this data to understand how people with prison experience use services for mental health and substance use problems.  We want people to get the right services at the right time, and our research will be an important starting point for discussions on how to make this happen. This will eventually reduce deaths and despair, which are far too common in the Scottish prison population.”

 

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Dr Richard Kjellgren, Research Fellow, Salvation Army Centre for Addiction Services and Research, University of Sterling

Kjellgren, R., Savinc, J., Dougall, N., Kurdi, A., Leyland, A., Tweed, E., Watson, J., Hunt, K. and Connell, C. (2025) “Access to services for mental ill-health and substance use among people released from prison in Scotland (RELEASE): Retrospective observational cohort study protocol”, International Journal of Population Data Science, 10(1). doi: 10.23889/ijpds.v10i1.2971.