Reducing seclusion and restraint in an acute adolescent psychiatric ward: A feasibility study

What is known on the subjectRestraining and secluding health consumers for safety reasons continue to be used in psychiatric inpatient facilities even though they have no therapeutic value and have negative effects on consumers, families and staff.Six Core Strategies (6CS) for reducing seclusion and restraint have been developed to address this problem but there are very few effectiveness studies in inpatient adolescent psychiatric facilities.What the paper adds to existing knowledgeWe used a mixed methods approach to evaluate the implementation of 6CS in an adolescent psychiatric facility. The implementation was successful. It eliminated the use of seclusion, substantially reduced the use of restraints and significantly reduced staff absenteeism.Using thematic analysis on feedback surveys, we identified five dominant themes that described consumers' and carers' experiences during their stay at the facility: communication, service delivery, flexibility, consistency and internal feeling states.What are the implications for practiceThis study provides support for the feasibility of a comprehensive and broad-based intervention program such as 6CS to reduce seclusion and restraint practices in inpatient mental health facilities.This study also demonstrates the value of using surveys to gather consumer and carer feedback and improve outcomes for service users.