Relational Help-Seeking: Qualitative Analysis in Criminal Justice

According to PLOS One (Connell et al., 2026), help-seeking for mental health and substance use among people in contact with the criminal justice system is driven by three interacting domains: desire to seek help, ability to seek help, and help-seeking context.

• 50 interviews were analysed by the authors between 1 November 2023 and 31 July 2024, with results published on July 30, 2026, demonstrating relational influences across social networks.
• According to PLOS One, prior population studies cited in the article report over 40% meeting criteria for a substance use disorder, more than 10% for major depression or psychosis, and 75% for any personality disorder.
• The authors conclude in PLOS One (July 30, 2026) that interventions must move beyond individual-level approaches to multi-level, network-aware strategies.

What happened: PLOS One (Connell et al., 2026) reported framework analysis of qualitative interviews (N = 50) conducted from 1 November 2023 to 31 July 2024 in two Scottish local authority areas.

The study used participant-aided sociograms and Network Canvas software, as described in PLOS One (Connell et al., 2026), to elicit social network structure and semi-structured interview data that were transcribed and pseudo-anonymised prior to framework analysis in NVivo.

The authors tested a pre-specified framework (desire, ability, context), iteratively coded transcripts, double-coded for consistency, and produced a framework figure that highlights relational subthemes across those three domains.

Direct participant quotations used by the authors illustrate lived experience, for example P12 said, "I have dealt with it for almost twenty odd years by myself… I don’t like going to doctors because I think they are a waste of time, " and P13 said, "you just kind of can’t get away from the social, every time you try and do something good basically they will get you on it, " both quoted in PLOS One (Connell et al., 2026).

Researchers should measure social networks and relational context when studying help-seeking among justice-involved populations, because PLOS One (Connell et al., 2026) shows relational influences operate across desire and ability domains.

According to PLOS One (July 30, 2026), measuring only individual attitudes will miss shared epistemic mistrust and community norms that normalize substance use and discourage help-seeking.

Practical steps for research teams, drawn from the PLOS One methods and findings, include: collecting participant-aided sociograms, timestamping interviews (as in the study: Nov 2023–Jul 2024), and reporting double-coding consistency to strengthen validity.

The PLOS One framework (Connell et al., 2026) makes clear that qualitative analysis of help-seeking must be relational and context-aware to design effective interventions.

Applied researchers should add social network mapping and multi-level coding to capture shared mistrust and normative constraints that the PLOS One study identified across 50 interviews collected between November 2023 and July 2024.

Evidano can speed this work with secure transcription, thematic and cross-segment analysis, and visual network outputs to translate the PLOS One framework into actionable targets (features).

If you want to pilot network-aware qualitative workflows informed by this PLOS One study, Try Evidano for free.