The aim of the project is to identify the best ways of working with consumers in acute units, so that care is least restrictive of people’s freedoms and is about recovery.
We have reviewed international research and Australian policy, to find out what the best practice is and what the impact of locking doors on the people involved is. Below is a summary of what these documents tell us. What evidence is there regarding least restrictive practices? Least restrictive care is an ideology which underpins the delivery of services to consumers across settings, however it is not well researched. Most research about least restrictive strategies has a focus on strategies for an individual, not on practice across a ward. For example, the restriction of the locked ward is avoided by using a Community Treatment Order, instead of admission. One study showed that an , ‘anti-absconding program’ can reduce the rate of ‘absconding’ and therefore reduce the need to lock doors. The small amount of work on recovery-oriented practice in acute wards suggests that it will involve:

a focus on consumers’ strengths consumers having choices about what interventions are offered good working relationships that shape how interventions are (respectfully) offered re-thinking the core business of the unit, away from treat-first-&-then-recover promoting consumers’ citizenship and connection to the community, whilst in acute units staff being educated and knowledgeable about recovery and well supported in recovery-orientation by the organisation