Qualitative study of proactive care and restraint reduction
Research type
Research Study
Full title
PROMISE qualitative study: an exploration of staff and patient experience of physical intervention on mental health wards and their suggestions for reducing its use.
IRAS ID
165269
Contact name
Manaan Kar-Ray
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust
Duration of Study in the UK
0 years, 4 months, 1 days
Research summary
There are fundamental contradictions at the heart of mental health, between care and control, risk and recovery. It can be argued that there is no place for force in supporting an individual’s recovery journey, however many aspects of the work of front-line mental health practitioners in reality involves the control and containment of people who may pose a risk to themselves or others. Thus the use of physical restraint, albeit viewed by most as a practice incompatible with the vision of recovery, carries on. Guidelines issued from the Department of Health in the “Positive and Proactive Care: reducing the need for restrictive interventions” document sets out the expectations for services, however there is very little guidance/evidence for what proactive care entails at the frontline. Using the expertise and wisdom of patients and staff this qualitative study aims to bridge this knowledge/practice gap by exploring staff and patient experiences of physical restraint, their suggestions for reducing restraint, and their suggestions for promoting proactive care in mental health services. The findings of the study will inform the development of a proactive care framework aimed at reducing the need for physical intervention. This framework will influence training of Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust (CPFT) staff and staff practice development. The findings of this study will feed in to the framework alongside other strands of a wider project (PROMISE: PROactive Management of Integrated Services and Environments).
The current project will use a participatory qualitative approach. Study participants will take part in one-to-one semi-structured interviews which will be digitally voice-recorded, transcribed verbatim and analysed using thematic analysis.
REC name
East of England - Cambridgeshire and Hertfordshire Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
15/EE/0142
Date of REC Opinion
1 May 2015
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion