Involving service users in teaching healthcare professionals about physical restraint

Abstract

Mental health service users can make an invaluable contribution to the training of staff and nursing students who care for them. This may be even more relevant when training staff in the use of physical restraint of patients, because service users who have experienced restraint are best placed to describe their experiences and help staff to use restraint in a patient-centred way. This article discusses involving service users in training staff about physical restraint. The authors argue that co-training with service users on whom the physical restraint skills are used can help to bridge the potential rift between theoretical principles and practice. When the principles are translated into practice after such training, a positive experience of physical restraint can be achieved for patient and staff. The authors maintain that such an outcome could enhance the therapeutic relationship between patient and staff and, ultimately, lead to a reduction in the use of physical restraint.