Today (Thursday 7 December), we have published a guide to help mental healthcare providers give appropriate support to people whose behaviour might endanger themselves or others.
Specifically the guide, A focus on restrictive intervention reduction programmes in inpatient mental health services, highlights good practice by NHS mental health services that has led to reduction in number of times that staff have needed to use physical restraint in these circumstances.
In the State of care in mental health services 2014 to 2017 earlier this year, we highlighted concerns that care for some people is overly restrictive and in response, we challenged services to commit to reducing restrictive interventions.
We asked five NHS trusts to say what they were doing to reduce the use of restrictive interventions and what was working well for their staff and the people who use their services.
These examples show that a positive and therapeutic culture across a mental health ward can reduce the need for restrictive interventions.
The five mental health trusts are:
- Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust
- Tees Esk Wear Valleys NHS Foundation Trust
- Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust
- East London NHS Foundation Trust
- North West Boroughs Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust
The examples have been set out under the standards of the Mental Health Act Code of Practice.