The above Act was fully implemented from the end of March 2022. Although this applies to hospital settings we have applied the principles to our mental health care home services as well. Overall the Act aims to reduce the ‘use of force’ in mental health units. It also ensures people are being treated equally respecting their human rights.
Sally-Anne Redhead (Registered Manager) is nominated as our Responsible Person and it is her responsibility to ensure we comply with the Act.
At Malsis Hall we have policies which include the ‘use of force’ and these are called ‘Safer Physical Intervention Policy’ and ‘Reducing Restrictive Interventions Policy’. We consulted with Patients, Service Users and families when reviewing these policies as part of implementing the Act. We did this with the support of independent advocacy. These policies detail how we keep people safe and treated well and that any restrictive practice or ‘use of force’ are a last resort to keep people safe.
As part of implementing the Act we have also developed a Restraint Reduction Plan and we have summarised the Act and how we have responded to it. Any restrictive practices or force we do use will be reviewed by senior managers regularly so we can learn from what happened and improve how we do things going forward.
If we think we will ever have to use restrictive practices or force this will be included in each individuals Care Plan and discussed and agreed with them. These will only be included to keep people safe and to support health and wellbeing.
We have attached the documents we have referred to and if you have any questions please do not hesitate to email Sally-Anne Redhead on sally-anneredhead@echouk.net