Exploring Reasons Motivating the Use of Restraint and Seclusion by Residential Workers in Residential Treatment Centers: A Qualitative Analysis of Official Reports

Abstract

In situations where the immediate safety of children or others is at risk, residential workers are authorized to use specific measures intended as last resort, namely restraint and seclusion (R&S).This study sought to identify and detail the reasons invoked by residential workers when justifying their decision to restrain or seclude a child. Researchers reviewed and coded 628 anonymized official R&S reports written by residential workers from two different residential treatment centers over the 14 months between September 2015 and May 2017. Researchers used qualitative thematic analysis to analyze official reports. Researchers found nine reasons invoked by residential workers that they regrouped into four themes as follows: workers justified their use of R&S based on their own perceptions of 1) the danger associated with children's affects and behaviors; 2) their obligation to yield to external constraints; 3) the benefits associated with R&S for children, and 4) the demands imposed by their professional culture. Researchers found that the reasons invoked in official reports by residential workers to justify their decisions are not always consistent with R&S as being methods of last resort. Specifically, residential workers appear to be missing the training and organizational resources needed to use alternative forms of intervention.

Rewarding or Sanctioning Performance? A critique on group dominance and counter-group dominance in public organizations

“…According to Kanungo (1983), a sanction is any act introduced in reaction to undesirable performance; and they are intended to correct (rather than a reprimand) abuses, enhance performance, circumvent reoccurrence, and defend the wellbeing of the establishment. In a number of cases, sanctions are used to correct the conduct of an employee to encourage them to turn to a certain mode so as to make sure that set goals and objectives are attained (Geoffrion, Lamothe, Drolet, Dufour, & Couvrette, 2021). However, a study by Maicibi (2003) observes that an individual will expect that the sanction remains proportionate to the action or conduct and so is a reward thus corroborating what Hodgetts and Hodgetts and Hegar (2007) call corrective procedures.…”