Nostell go national with restrictive practice reduction

Nostell ward shared how they’d successfully reduced restrictive practice by over 50% at a national conference this month.

Ward manager Claire Wilkinson and deputy ward manager Steph Gibson presented at the Royal College of Psychiatrists’ annual AIMS (accreditation for inpatient mental health services) conference, held in London on 6 November.

Between August 2017 – 2018, Nostell ward experienced an average of 21 restrictive incidents per month.

After introducing a number of changes including 24/7 access to a communal lounge, unrestricted access to a relaxation room, visits from a therapy dog, increased activities and protected meeting time with nurses, the ward saw a 54% reduction in restrictive incidents.

Following their presentation, 87% of conference attendees rated the team’s presentation as ‘Excellent’.

Nostell ward, based in Unity Centre at Fieldhead in Wakefield, is part of the Reducing Restrictive Practice Interventions (RRPI) Collaborative, which was set up in November 2018 and includes 38 wards from across the country. The aim of the RRPI is to reduce restrictive practice (measured by number of restraints, seclusions and rapid tranquilisations) by 33% in the wards taking part by April 2020.

The ward is part of our new £17m Unity Centre which features state-of-the-art therapeutic areas, en-suite bathrooms and vastly improved relaxation areas to help people in our care on their journey to recovery.

Ward manager Claire Wilkinson said: “A key part of this improvement is engaging with service users and involving them more in their care. It means we know and understand our service users better, so that we are able to predict and prevent incidents rather than being reactive to them.  We are able to better meet the needs of our service users and they are more engaged with activities on the ward which has brought benefits for everyone involved.”