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Aims: A discussion on the case for nurse-led community delivery of health and social care interventions to ex-offenders., Background: Ex-offenders re-enter their communities with limited pre-release preparation for the continuity of access to health care once outside prison. Once released, these individuals become hard to reach, do not consider health a priority and consequently use services to address their health and social care needs in a crisis-led way. Nevertheless, how nurses can best support these health-excluded group of individuals in the community remains vague and requires discussion., Design: Discussion paper., Data Sources: Several databases were searched for papers published in English from 1990-2012 using the Population, Intervention and Outcome framework to help structure search., Discussion: It is argued that current dominant discourses around equity of care are contradicted in the provision of health and social care services to ex-offenders in the community. Effective engagement with community interventions may be achieved if ex-offenders maintain contact with frontline providers who can support both their structural and health needs., Implication for Nursing: Nurses are uniquely positioned to initiate and sustain contact with ex-offenders, intervening at points of greatest need in the community to address the socially significant health and social care issues that plague them., Conclusion: The use of nurses in the provision of health and social care interventions to ex-offenders is a strategy, which could increase equity in access to health care, reduce reoffending and improve both the health and life chances of these individuals., (© 2013 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)

This study was a qualitative case study underpinned by "The Silences Framework" aimed at mapping the ex-offender health pathway towards identifying "touch points" in the community for the delivery of a nurse-led intervention. Participants meeting the study inclusion criteria were quantitatively ranked based on poor health. Participants scoring the lowest and endorsing their ranking through a confirmation of a health condition were selected as cases and interviewed over 6 months. Individuals in the professional networks of offenders contextualized emergent themes. The study indicated that pre-release, offenders were not prepared in prison for the continuity in access to healthcare in the community. On release, reintegration preparation did not routinely enquire whether offenders were still registered with a general practitioner or had the agency to register self in the community. Participants identified the site of post-release supervision as the "touch point" where a nurse-led intervention could be delivered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]