Housing evidence / case study · working draft
PROMPT: peer-led community support
Peers with lived experience helped deliver smoking support in a familiar community setting.
01 / THE APPROACH
What was tried
PROMPT was developed with community members in inner-city Ottawa for people who used drugs and faced substantial disadvantage. Eighty people received counselling, nicotine replacement and peer support through a community research office near low-income housing and shelter services.
Peers with lived experience helped shape and deliver the work. The setting offered an accessible place to discuss tobacco without requiring people to resolve other difficulties first. Researchers followed participants for six months and explored the wider experience as well as smoking.
02 / THE FINDINGS
What was learned
Six-month follow-up was completed by 42.5% of participants. Among the available data, average daily cigarette use fell from 20.5 to 9.3. Participants also described wider social and health changes.
Those changes cannot confidently be attributed to PROMPT because there was no comparison group and many participants were not followed up. The case's strongest contribution is a concrete example of peer involvement and treatment access within a familiar community setting.
03 / TRANSFER TO WALES
What Wales could learn
Peers helped shape and deliver support in a familiar community office, alongside counselling and nicotine replacement. The project made smoking support available while people were dealing with other difficulties.
Keeping contact was a major challenge: fewer than half completed six-month follow-up. Community access and sustained engagement need separate attention.
Sources & review
PROMPT prospective feasibility cohort, BMJ Open 2018; DOI 10.1136/bmjopen-2017-018416.
