Evaluation of the use of a sensory room on an adolescent inpatient unit and its impact on restraint and seclusion prevention

Abstract

Restraint and seclusion (R/S) reduction initiatives require multimodal efforts, particularly proactive approaches to facilitate patients' regulation. Sensory approaches are an increasingly popular method for helping patients self-regulate. A plan-do-check-act quality improvement model was used to measure practical aspects of a newly implemented sensory room on an adolescent psychiatric inpatient unit. This article describes an adolescent unit's implementation processes and methods used to evaluate a sensory room and its impact on R/S use, staff-patient relationships, and patients' aggressive behaviors. Selected multidisciplinary literature on sensory rooms and R/S reduction, adolescent unit staff/patient surveys, and institutional quality metrics. The use of a sensory room intervention substantially decreased patients' distress and reduced R/S use and aggressive behaviors. Improvements were also found in patient and staff members' sense of safety. No differences in the quality of staff-patient relationships were found based on sensory room use. An increase in the durations of R/S did occur and was attributed to a few patients who were "high users" of R/S. Considerations for continuous program improvement and research are discussed.