night time confinement v.1
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Gauging the Relative Impact of Night Confinement in a High Secure Hospital
IRAS ID
126682
Contact name
Simon Chu
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Mersey Care NHS Trust
Research summary
In August 2011, government directions concerning the three high secure psychiatric hospitals in England were revised to allow for the locked confinement of patients overnight, a policy referred to here as night-time confinement (NTC). Rollout of the policy at Ashworth Hospital began in October 2012 and will end with the final wards in March 2014. Under this policy, patients are confined to their rooms between 21:15hrs and 07:15hrs but the effects of NTC on patients are not yet clearly understood and appreciating the consequences of the policy for patients is a clear priority for the hospital. It may be that an externally imposed structure to the patients’ night may improve sleep and if sleep quality improves, the psychological benefits may be considerable. One would expect that daytime wakefulness, mood, attention and motivation will improve because these are all known to be adversely affected by poor sleep. This may lead to an improvement in patients’ engagement with therapy, emotional processing and, more generally, one might expect ward atmosphere to improve. We therefore propose to assess a range of different patient characteristics both before and after NTC to gauge the impact of night confinement on patients. Using actigraphy monitors, we will objectively measure patients’ activity and sleep patterns. In addition, to assess any changes in overall safety and security, we will examine patient records to assess changes in incident and seclusion rates, as well as engagement with activities and therapies, and other indices of activity on the ward. Finally, after confinement has begun, we will conduct interviews with patients to gain a more detailed view of patients’ views on NTC and the effects that NTC has had on a broad range of different factors (e.g. safety, social interaction, engagement). In short, we will examine the effects of night-time confinement policy on patients.
REC name
North West - Greater Manchester South Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
13/NW/0391
Date of REC Opinion
8 Jul 2013
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion