Use of seclusion for managing behavioural disturbance in patients

The management of aggression, violence and behavioural disturbance remains a challenging problem for psychiatric services despite advances in pharmacotherapy, psychological interventions for many mental disorders and improvement in the delivery of community psychiatric services. Notwithstanding the continuing trend of delivering psychiatric care in the community with the active input of patients and their families (Sowers 2005), the need for hospital-based management of acutely unwell patients remains. Hospital care is provided to the most unwell or highest-risk patients, and, as part of this in-patient care, seclusion and restraint are used to ensure patient safety and facilitate overall recovery.