Patients' Experiences of Restrictive Practice in an NHS Secure Service
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Patients' Experiences of Restrictive Practice in a Medium Secure NHS Service
IRAS ID
224018
Contact name
Robyn Cooley
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Coventry University
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 10 months, 29 days
Research summary
This research project aims to explore patients' experiences of restrictive practices in a medium-secure NHS service, that is seclusion, physical restraint and rapid tranquillisation.
Participants will be recruited from a local medium-secure unit, using a purposive sampling design. In order to be eligible for the study, participants must have experienced at least one form of restricitve practice (as listed above) in the last two years. The proposed project will gather qualitative data via semi-sructured interview, which will be analysed to capture emerging themes. Participants will also be offered the opportunity to give a follow up interview, to review these emerging themes, although this will not be compulsory.
This project is embedded in recent UK legislation, which has imposed new restrictions on the use of restrictive practices to afford higher levels of protection to patients. However, there is little exploration of the potential impact such interventions may have. A literature review of 12 studies exploring perspectives of physical restraint among psychiatric inpatients highlighted the experience as distinctly negative and re-traumatising (Stout, 2010). To the best of the researcher's knowledge, since 2001 a total of five UK studies, with a qualitative aspect to their design, have focussed more specifically on the perception and experiences of inpatients residing in secure, forensic hospitals. Of these, only two were conducted within the NHS and both of these recruited a population with a learning disability. Further, these studies looked specifically at pysical restraint and none have used IPA.
It is believed this will be the first study whose findings will offer an in-depth qualitative analysis of patients' reported experiences of broader restrictive practices, employing patients with a mental health diagnosis currently residing in a secure, NHS setting.
REC name
West Midlands - South Birmingham Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
17/WM/0237
Date of REC Opinion
29 Jun 2017
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion