Restraint and seclusion are behavioural management interventions that should
be used as a last resort to control a behavioural emergency.

Behavioural emergencies are often the result of unmet health, functional,
or psychosocial needs, and you can often reduce, eliminate, or manage such
emergencies by addressing the conditions that produced them.

Restraints include the use of physical force, mechanical devices, or chemicals
to immobilize a person. SECLUSION, a type of restraint, involves confining a
person in a room from which the person cannot exit freely.

Restraint and seclusion are not therapeutic care procedures. In fact,
restraint and seclusion can induce further physical or psychosocial trauma.
In short, these procedures pose a safety risk to the emotional and physical
well-being of the person and have no known long-term benefit in reducing behaviours.

ICSP CANADIAN PATIENT SAFETY INSTITUTE
Mental Health Teaching Module

September 2017

COMMENT:

In our experience, seclusion and restraint are commonly used to discipline and even bully
vulnerable, sometimes elderly clients.
We have documented this behaviour at the Villa Caritas Geriatric Mental Hospital in Edmonton,
Alberta.

Tags: Alberta Hospital Edmonton, Dr. Candace Walker, Dr. Kevin Lawless, Takedown of 80 year old, villa caritas