‘Behind This Wall’ – Experiences of Seclusion on Locked Wards for Women

Impact of the physical environment of psychiatric wards on the use of seclusion.

BACKGROUND The physical environment is presumed to have an effect on aggression and also on the use of seclusion on psychiatric wards. Multicentre studies that include a broad variety of design features found on psychiatric wards and that control for patient, staff and general ward characteristics are scarce. AIMS To explore the effect of design features on the risk of being secluded, the num...

use of seclusion Impact of the physical environment of psychiatric wards on the Material

Aggression and seclusion on acute psychiatric wards: effect of short-term risk assessment.

BACKGROUND Short-term structured risk assessment is presumed to reduce incidents of aggression and seclusion on acute psychiatric wards. Controlled studies of this approach are scarce. AIMS To evaluate the effect of risk assessment on the number of aggression incidents and time in seclusion for patients admitted to acute psychiatric wards. METHOD A cluster randomised controlled trial was co...

Abusive Interactions: Research in Locked Wards for People with Dementia

This paper reports on a study in which unique access to three locked psycho-geriatric wards of a hospital allowed ethnographic exploration into everyday social worlds of fourteen people with dementia. Findings indicate abusive practice in the wards and show that participants in receipt of such practice responded with self-defence and resistance, but ultimately were defeated. In a development of...

Outcomes of the Victorian Safewards trial in 13 wards: Impact on seclusion rates and fidelity measurement.

Restrictive practices are used in response to conflict and aggression in psychiatric inpatient settings. Reducing such practices is the focus internationally of policy and legislative change, many initiatives, and a growing body of research. Safewards is a model and a set of 10 interventions designed to reduce conflict and containment in inpatient services. In the current study, we aimed to ass...