Reducing seclusion and restraint during child and adolescent inpatient treatment: still an underdeveloped area of research (original) (raw)
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Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, 2002
This parameter reviews the current state of the prevention and management of child and adolescent aggressive behavior in psychiatric institutions, with particular reference to the indications and use of seclusion and restraint. It also presents guidelines that have been developed in response to professional, regulatory, and public concern about the use of restrictive interventions with aggressive patients with regard to personal safety and patient rights. The literature on the use of seclusion, physical restraint, mechanical restraint, and chemical restraint is reviewed, and procedures for carrying out each of these interventions are described. Clinical and regulatory agency perspectives on these interventions are presented. Effectiveness, indications, contraindications, complications, and adverse effects of seclusion and restraint procedures are addressed. Interventions are presented to provide more opportunities to promote patient independence and satisfaction with treatment while diminishing the necessity of using restrictive procedures. J. Am. Acad. Child Adolesc. Psychiatry, 2002, 41(2 Supplement):4S-25S.
Psychiatric Quarterly, 2021
Restraints and seclusions are restrictive interventions used in psychiatric inpatient units when there is an imminent risk of harm to the patient or others. Coercive measures are controversial and can lead to negative consequences, including negative emotions, re-traumatization, injuries, or death. The article summarizes the last 10 years of literature regarding methods and strategies used for reducing seclusions and restraints in child and adolescent psychiatric inpatient units, and reports on their outcomes. The literature was reviewed by searching PubMed and PsycInfo for English-language articles published between May 2010 and May 2020. Eighteen articles were found that described methods or strategies aimed at reducing restraint or seclusion utilization in child and adolescent psychiatric inpatient units. The following interventions were evaluated: Trauma-Informed Care (TIC), Six Core Strategies, Child and Family Centered Care (CFCC), Collaborative & Proactive Solutions (CPS), St...
The aggression-coercion cycle: Use of seclusion and restraint in a child psychiatric hospital
Journal of Child and Family Studies, 1993
The widespread use of seclusion and restraint in child psychiatric hospitals to manage aggression and noncompliance is based on the assumption that coercive consequences reduce the frequency of undesirable behaviors exhibited by the patients. We report a study of the use of seclusion and restraint in a public child psychiatric hospital during a 3-year period. Twenty-eight percent of the patients had been secluded or restrained a total of 1670 times. About 25% of these patients had been secluded more than five times during their hospitalization, and 32% had been placed in restraints more than once. Behaviors that typically resulted in repeated seclusion included physical aggression toward staff, verbal aggression toward peers, non-compliant or oppositional behavior, and self-harm. Variables that predicted patients most at risk for repeated seclusion included age, gender, and psychiatric diagnosis. The predictor variables for those most at risk for repeated restraint included age, property destruction, and self-harm. The high rates of use of seclusion and restraint suggest that these methods for controlling the behavior of children and adolescents in this child psychiatric hospital may not have been therapeutic. We suggest that staff in such hospitals engage in a pattern of behavior characterized by an aggression-coercion cycle, in which increasingly aggressh, e and coercive behaviors are exhibited by both patients and staff.
Two-Year Trends in the Use of Seclusion and Restraint Among Psychiatrically Hospitalized Youths
Psychiatric Services, 2003
Objectives: This study examined characteristics associated with the use of seclusion and restraint among 442 psychiatrically hospitalized youths and sought to quantify changing trends in the rates of these modalities of treatment over time after the 1999 implementation of federal regulations and an institutional performance improvement program. Methods: Demographic and clinical data related to all 5,929 incidents of seclusion and restraint that occurred during 2000 and 2001 at a child and adolescent state psychiatric hospital were analyzed. Results: The two-year prevalence of use of seclusion was 61 percent and of restraint was 49 percent. Children and adolescents who were admitted on an emergency basis and those belonging to ethnic minority groups were more likely to undergo seclusion or restraint. Children aged 11 years and younger were more likely to undergo seclusion. The total number of episodes decreased by 26 percent and their cumulative duration decreased by 38 percent between the first quarter of 2000 and the last quarter of 2001. The decreases were the result of fewer seclusion and restraint incidents as well as shorter episodes of restraint. Over time, a concurrent increase was observed in the proportion of episodes associated with patient (but not staff) injuries and with as-needed use of medications. Conclusions: National reforms and institutional efforts can lead to downward trends in the use of seclusion and restraint among psychiatrically hospitalized youths. The active elements of these interventions warrant further study and replication. (Psychiatric Services 54:987-993, 2003)
European Child Adolescent Psychiatry, 2011
Seclusion and restraint are frequent procedures to intervene in aggressive and potentially dangerous patients in psychiatric settings. However, little is known about their utilization and effectiveness in paediatric populations. We aimed to examine the prevalence and determinants of seclusion and restraint utilisation in children and adolescents in psychiatric settings. Using PubMed, PsychInfo and Cinahl, we performed a systematic literature review of studies published in the last 10 years reporting on the prevalence of seclusion and restraint use in psychiatrically ill youth (<21 years old) treated in psychiatric settings. Only seven publications addressed the topic. Primary outcomes were prevalence rates, reported either as the proportion of patients restrained/secluded or as the number of restraints/seclusions per number of patient days. All studies found relatively high baseline rates of seclusion (26% of patients; 67/1.000 patient days), and restraints (29% of patients; 42.7/1,000 patient days). In four studies an intervention, implemented to reduce seclusion and restraints, resulted in a dramatic weighted mean reduction in the more restrictive use of restraints by 93.2%, with a 54.2% shorter duration. There was a small, weighted mean reduction in the use of less restrictive seclusions (-0.6%), but results were heterogeneous (-97.2% to +71.0%), with the only increase in seclusions being reported in one study in which the intervention-based padded seclusion room was utilized more frequently instead of more restrictive measures. Otherwise, seclusion episodes reduced by 74.7%, including a 32.4%. shorter duration. Few studies reported on risk-factors and predictors, consisting of past or current aggression and/or violence, suicidal behaviour, more severe psychopathology, non-White ethnicity, emergency admissions, out-of-home placement, and poorer family functioning, while findings regarding age were inconsistent Except for duration, data about the effectiveness of seclusion and restraints were missing, although there is some indication that seclusion and restraints can lead to severe psychological and physical consequences. Future research should focus on indications, predictors, preventive and alternative strategies, as well as on clinical outcomes of seclusion and restraints in psychiatrically ill youth. In addition, there is a clear need for transparent policies and guidelines.
Restraint and seclusion as therapeutic interventions: changes across consecutive admissions
Journal of Psychiatric Intensive Care, 2013
Background: We recently showed that restraint and seclusion differed in children and adolescents (n 5 2411) who were receiving treatment as psychiatric inpatients, with children experiencing more episodes of both of these interventions of shorter duration. In this report, we examine restraint and seclusion in members of that sample (n 5 471) who experienced a readmission within two years. Methods: The initial database included two years of data on a total of 2411 child and adolescent inpatients, with 20% being readmitted within that period. Statistical analyses examine the characteristics of the sample at the readmission, including correlations between satisfaction with treatment at discharge from the readmission and the comparisons of the frequency of restraint and seclusion at both admissions. These analyses were performed separately for the samples of children and adolescents. Results: In the cases who experienced restraint or seclusion at their first admission there was a 22% reduction in occurrence of restraint at the second admission for children and 44% for adolescents. Comparisons of the patients who did and did not experience restraint and seclusion across admissions suggested that these are different populations with different overall risk for restraint seclusions. Risk for seclusion and the number of seclusions was correlated across admissions. Length of stay was shorter at readmission for patients who experienced seclusion or restraint during their first admission. Patients who experienced restraint or seclusion at their readmission did not differ in their satisfaction with treatment at discharge from their readmission from those who did not. Implications: Children and adolescents who experienced restraint and seclusion during a psychiatric admission had a reduced risk of seclusion at a readmission, but were still at higher risk than cases without restraint and seclusion at the first admission. These reductions in risk, as well as a shorter length of stay at readmission, suggest potentially beneficial effects. The lack of increased dissatisfaction with treatment also indicates that these cases did not see themselves as excessively coerced or victimised by the experience. Nonetheless, the high rate of occurrence of restraint and seclusion suggests that alternative treatment interventions are clearly important.
Journal of Clinical Psychology, 2011
This study extends a translational action research program by applying a theoretically based measure of risk in predicting incidents of restraint among children and adolescents in a secure psychiatric hospital. Youth inpatients (N=149, ages 5-17) were assessed at intake for the presence of selected individual and contextual risk factors, and their involvement in critical incidents was tracked (i.e., number of episodes in which restraint was applied) for the remainder of their hospitalization. Models including history of aggression or history of previous placements as well as a combined model including several individual and contextual factors significantly predicted the likelihood of a youth becoming involved in at least one restraint. Unique predictors of restraint involvement included history of aggression against adults and history of previous psychiatric hospitalizations. None of the variables assessed predicted the extent of a youth's restraint involvement. The implications of these findings are discussed with respect to future research and empirically informed practice with high-risk youth.
Psychiatric Quarterly, 2017
The Omega Program for the Management of Aggressive Behaviors aims to reduce patients' dangerous behaviors, towards themselves or others, and to reduce the use of seclusion and restraint (S/R). A previous study in a Mental Health Institute (Montreal, Canada) showed that implementing this program allowed employees of the intensive care and emergency units to gain confidence in coping with patients' aggressions and to reduce their psychological distress. The present study, conducted in the same high-risk units, assesses the effect of the program on S/R use. We hypothesize that the incidence and duration of S/R should diminish significantly following the implementation of the program in both units. This naturalistic, prospective study covered archival data between April 2010 and July 2014. Pre-training data (April 2010-December 2011) were compared to data during training (January 2012-October 2012) and to post-training data (November 2012-July 2014) for both units. In the intensive care unit, we confirmed an increase of both mean daily number and duration of S/R by admissions in pre-training, followed by a decrease during the training and post-training. In the emergency unit, a decreasing trend is seen during the entire period thus suggesting that the decrease in S/R may be independent of the training. These findings suggest that Omega is a promising intervention program to use in an intensive care unit. However, a more global approach, including institutional changes in culture and attitude, can be important factors to develop to increase the positive outcomes.
European Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, 2002
The aim of the study was to analyse the use of holding, restraints, seclusion and time-out in child and adolescent psychiatric in-patient treatment in Finland. The study included 504 child and adolescent psychiatric in-patients in the year 2000. Time-out had been used for 28 %, holding for 26 %, seclusion for 8 %, and mechanical restraints for 4 % of the in-patients. In multivariate analysis, aggressive acts were the strongest factor associated with all kinds of restraint practices. Psychosis, suicidal acts and older age (13–18 years) were associated with seclusion and mechanical restraints. Younger age (