Essay Sample on Evidence-Based Strategies for Preventing Seclusion and Restraint

Current efforts to bring a stop to seclusion and restraint as a mode of treating Mental pathologies have been vast for several years now. Better and more humane ways of handling patients with the mental crisis have proved to be more advantageous than the previous methods. (LeBel, Huckshorn & Caldwell, (2014). This did not just bring fear, hopelessness, and prejudice among the patients, especially those taken to the facility without their agreement. Seclusion is the act of placing someone in an enclosed room alone at any time of the day, with the doors closed in a way that can prevent the exit of the person from leaving. Restraint is explained as the use of devices or bodily gadgets that can cause limitation to the free movement of the person. Physical restraint is the use of two or more people to prevent the free movement of a person physically. This method works where human force is used to hinder progress, for example, to people pushing someone down. Mechanical restraint is the use of gadgets to limit movement; such equipment may include the use of cuffs and ropes.

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Several strategies have been put in place to help in the quest for reducing and eliminate the use of seclusion and restraint. To facilitate a more effective system for tackling mental and other behavior-related challenges and improve customer satisfaction, a good rapport between health care service consumers and providers. The following are the few highlighted strategies that will effectively prevent seclusion and restraint while at the same time, promote complete and fast recovery among the inpatients in the health facility. They include leadership, engagement, use of restraint and seclusion reduction tools, Debriefing techniques, Staff training on specific issues, policy and procedural change, Staff training on particular topics, and consumer roles in an inpatient setting.

Leadership is one of the essential elements that will influence whether implantation of an issue will go through or not. For instance, participation, commitment to and support in reducing restraint and seclusion among those in power, administrative offices, and other clinical staff in various Mental institutions leadership are needed. The administration is considered one of the essential ingredients of success. Hence having an active, competent, and an up to date management will be useful in facilitating a reduced Seclusion and restraint operations in a facility. According to Riahi, Dawe, Stuckey & Klassen, (2016), in his vast works and research. He suggested that success in restraint and seclusion initiative is determined by a conscious decision made by a sound administration and other clinical leaders having a great commitment and having organizational resources to utilize. Riahi et al. (2016) proposed that where leadership believed there were no therapeutic advantages of restraint and seclusion, its elimination was more likely to be a success. Unlike the administration that believes restraint and seclusion are beneficial will struggle more opposition to acquire success. Huckshorn, 2014), in his in-depth works on restraint and seclusion reduction, identified the crucial roles played by leadership in managing critical changes of values, beliefs and sharing a vision of restraint and seclusion minimized service. Leadership plays a huge role in tackling challenges mostly faced by staff during initiatives to reduce and also to ensure the issue has been included in improvement policy (Huckshorn, 2014). The critical roles played by management in reducing Seclusion and Restraint include Monitor progress on actions, Engage staff at all levels, Assignment of duties for implementation, and allocate activities for clinical governance.

Engagement is also another catalyst in the recovery of a patient. It is composed of different organizations working with a common aim of having restraint-free services. It includes the cooperation between the family, client, and the health care providers to promote high-quality services which are recovery-oriented. All activities in this strategy rely on active participation with service users, and every other person directly involved in Reduction activities. It is also imperative for service users to request feedback from their clients about the services offered at the facility. This facilitates the improvement of the services provided to create a non-conflict environment, reducing circumstances that might cause the use of restraints and which will accelerate the rate of recovery. Also, the involvement of persons who have past experience of mental health services also decreases the use of seclusion and restraints. Working very closely with staff and service, consumers play a massive role in rapport formation.

Staff training and education on specific issues create a more competent and well-equipped workforce, which is a critical tool in ensuring the success of this strategy. The creation of a standardized curriculum to be used nationally across all staff working in mental institutions accelerates the success of this strategy. It is also notable that regulation and standardization of training, especially on issues about physical interventions, can be of great concern. Helps in equipping with relevant technical knowledge on how to handle a variety of people with different personalities. It is also essential to set up a standard that will be used as criteria for the selection of staff during the employment process. This will facilitate the enrolment of crews with the required set of skills that will help in the quest for seclusion and restraint reduction.

On the contrary, the lack of required skills will lead to incompetence and irresponsibility. And it can also create an abysmal relationship between the health care provider and the service consumer. Also, the management should organize for regular and frequent seminars and other training programs, which will ensure the employees have the latest and more updated skills that are effective in tackling recent challenges. The difference should also be noted between training staff on how to address aggressiveness and violence and how to effectively implement Seclusion and reduction policy.

Policy and procedural change is also a key ingredient in facilitating seclusion and restraint-free services. Most of the staff don't follow the stipulated policies and procedures during practice on their daily duties. Instead, they make decisions based on their personal values and experiences. Finding the most effective policies that can be adopted by both the staff and the service consumer will create a good rapport between the two groups. Then the decisions made every day will be based on the new stipulated policies rather than an old written rulebook. So the new policies and procedures should be based on values and not to enforce the rules, and should be flexible and can be individualized and should be more focused on person and business-centered. The policies should also be easily understood and adopted by the staff and other members of the organization.

Debriefing is also another effective way of avoiding restraining and secluding of individuals. It creates a level ground for discussion of issues causing frequent restrainment and how the problems could be resolved more justly to avoid unnecessary power struggles. It includes the viewpoint of those individuals who have experienced seclusion and restraint before and their perspective. Consumers can also be asked what can the staff do so that to avoid future crises and struggles from occurring. Also, the staff can tell consumers what they expect from them. And then finally at the organization level where the management can state what it requires from both parties, for instance, the staff and consumers. This will facilitate cooperation between the three parties. Each party will be playing its roles effectively to prevent crossing paths with the other. Such kinds of relationships will lead to very minimal cases of seclusion and restraints.

Staffing is crucial because it involves the need for expertise and skills to ensure effectiveness, competitiveness, and morale, which are essential factors in the delivery of quality services. It is quite apparent that staff are essential in guaranteeing the successful implementation of present or latter strategies. The team should be equipped with adequate skills and expertise to help them fight different challenges during work, for example, fear, stress, and guilt. While use of some force is necessary sometimes, most of the staff find emotional distress while deploying such force. Hence it brings about role conflict between being a carer and the safety of all concerned. All the number of staff being recruited should be realistic, and the ratio between patients and staff should be reasonable to avoid unnecessary work overload. This overload can cause stress and pressure, which will affect the efficiency of the team.

The environment has some therapeutic value based on evidence from the effectiveness of the physical environment. Most suggestions are, use of aesthetics, warm and appealing colors, comfortable furniture, and the use of plants. ( Valenkamp, Delaney & Verheij, 2014) Having more comfortable rooms also helps to reduce stress-related issues, and this is achieved through the use of multisensory facilities. It can be noted that the role played by the physical aspects of the environment is significant. Mostly in creating an aware trauma environment which allows for respectful negotiation and engagement necessary for collaborative recovery. The presence of staff initiates a culture of calmness, structure, collaboration rather than mere control. The presence of staff will also assist in recognizing and responding to distress among the service user at an early stage. That will ensure very minimal, or no cases of seclusion and restraint are reported.

In conclusion, seclusion and restraint initiative, its evaluation, and development have proved that eliminating the practice is a legitimate goal. It is also expected that lower volume facilities will be able to adopt this initiative more quickly than higher volume facilities because they are not overcrowded. This can also be achieved quickly because the layout is more comfortable and accommodating. It should also be noted that eliminating a tradition that has been in use for centuries is a great challenge. And the practice has been considered a necessity in the treatment process. However, it is very clear that the practice has very serious side effects and that there are better ways of treatment. Seclusion and restrains can be eliminated when other principles are practiced. Such transformations can only be achieved when leaders are willing to make it there their priority. Creating a recovery based vision and mission will create seclusion and a restraint-free environment, and this will move these organizations into new dimensions.

References

Huckshorn, K. A. (2014). Reducing seclusion and restraint use in inpatient settings: A phenomenological study of state psychiatric hospital leader and staff experiences. Journal of psychosocial nursing and mental health services, 52(11), 40-47.

LeBel, J., Huckshorn, K. A., & Caldwell, B. (2014). Preventing seclusion and restraint in residential programs. Residential Interventions for Children, Adolescents, and Families (pp. 130-145). Routledge.

Riahi, S., Dawe, I. C., Stuckey, M. I., & Klassen, P. E. (2016). Implementation of the six core strategies for restraint minimization in a specialized mental health organization. Journal of psychosocial nursing and mental health services, 54(10), 32-39.

Valenkamp, M., Delaney, K., & Verheij, F. (2014). Reducing seclusion