Exploring Patterns of Seclusion Use in Australian Mental Health Services
Section snippets
Design
A cross-sectional design was used with data collected in mental health inpatient units from 11 mental health services in Australia.
Setting
Eleven mental health services were involved in this project, including at least one service from each of the states and territories in Australia. These services were part of a Commonwealth Government-funded project to reduce the use of seclusion. Data were collected with the aim of gaining knowledge about circumstances and factors associated with the use of
Results
Seclusions occurred during 295 of the 4,337 episodes of care (6.8%). During the 295 episodes of care when seclusions occurred, there were 683 seclusions. Of those patients who had been secluded, the mean number of episodes of seclusion was 2.32 (SD = 2.28) per patient. The data on the number of seclusions each patient had experienced were positively skewed, with 55.9% of patients being secluded on only 1 occasion. Most patients (95.3%) had been secluded on 6 or fewer occasions. Two patients,
Discussion
The rates of seclusion demonstrated in this research are lower than the official Australian statistics (Roberts et al., 2009). They are also considerably lower than those identified in other Australian research (Department of Human Services, 2005, Roberts et al., 2009, Tunde-Ayinmode and Little, 2004) and, in fact, lower than the rates quoted in most of the international research (El-Badri and Mellsop, 2002, Korkeila et al., 2002, LeGris et al., 1999, Mental Health, 2004, Morrison and Lehane,
Conclusions
This study was conducted across 11 mental health services throughout all of the states and territories of Australia. These services were part of a national project with the primary intention of reducing the use of seclusion. The findings were lower than the national average for frequency of seclusion, length of seclusion, and percentage of consumers secluded more than once. The pattern of use of seclusion in terms of day following admission, time of day, and day of the week was similar to the
Acknowledgment
The authors express their thanks to the project team for the opportunity to be involved in the analysis of these important data. Sincere thanks also to the project teams at each of the 11 mental health services.
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