Use of physical restraint increases in city's older inpatient unit

The Victorian Mental Illness Awareness Council (VMIAC) annual seclusion report revealed the hospital had a rate of 20.4 incidents of physical restraint per 1000 occupied bed days in 2020-21.

However, the hospital recorded the best performance across the state when it came to the use of mechanical restraint, with no use of the practice.

The hospital also improved when it came to seclusion, with its rate dropping in its adult mental health unit from 8.8 to 7.

Seclusion is the confinement of a person to a room or other space from which it is not within their control to leave and is meant to be used only as a last resort to prevent serious harm to the person or another person.

VMIAC chief executive officer Craig Wallace said community members were pleased the Royal Commission into Victoria's Mental Health System had recommended the elimination of seclusion and restraint.

"This policy imperative is long overdue, however we are concerned at the overly long time frame of 10 years," Mr Wallace said.

"While there is much in this report that is disappointing, we have taken care to be fair and to balance the good with the bad. We acknowledge those services who have made significant practice improvements and I thank all those staff who are already working hard to create a more compassionate, rights based system."

The report showed the Warrnambool Base Hospital had the highest reported use of physical restraint in its older inpatient unit at 20.4.

"This was a disappointing result given that Warrnambool dropped from the safest hospital ranked number one last year with a rate of zero, to the most unsafe this year (in this category)," the report states.

A South West Healthcare spokeswoman said it was constantly working towards restraint reduction.

"As evidenced in previous years South West Healthcare will refrain from the use of restrictive intervention whenever possible," the spokeswoman said.

"Restrictive intervention will only be used when it is in the best interest and safety of the patient and all patients from year to year have varying needs.

"Physical restraint refers to the use of 'hands-on immobilisation techniques' by healthcare staff and is only implemented with elderly consumers when there are no other options for de-escalation available."

The spokeswoman said physical restraint within the older adult cohort in 2020-21 increased due to consumer-specific requirements.

"The report did not include the time spent in physical restraint which is minimal and only for the purpose of administering treatment," the spokeswoman said.

She said the hospital anticipated rates would decline again in the coming financial year.

"Current planning for the redevelopment of the mental health acute inpatient unit includes consideration of how the redeveloped infrastructure will be able to support us to achieve seclusion and restraint reduction," the spokeswoman said.

"Currently, South West Healthcare has a sensory room that is equipped to assist consumers and is used to reduce the need for restrictive interventions."

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