Professionals’ Attitudes After a Seclusion Reduction Program: Anything Changed?

Abstract

Changing professionals’ attitudes toward seclusion is seen as an important condition to reduce its use. The purpose of this study was to determine whether professionals from a mental health institute in the Netherlands changed in their attitudes toward seclusion after implementation of a multifaceted seclusion reduction program. Professionals working on four acute admission wards filled in the Professional Attitudes Toward Seclusion Questionnaire (PATS-Q) before and after a seclusion reduction program. Changes were analyzed by comparing mean scores on the PATS-Q. After the program, professionals scored significantly higher on ‘ethics’ and ‘more care’. As expected, no change occurred on ‘reasons’ for the use of seclusion. In addition, no significant changes were found on ‘confidence’, ‘better care’ and ‘other care’. Significant changes in professional attitudes concerning the ethics of using seclusion and involving issues of more care were observed after a seclusion reduction program. Mental health professionals moved in the direction of ‘transformers’, indicating an increased criticism of the practice of seclusion and increased willingness to change their own use of seclusion.

Psychiatric nursing staffs’ attitudes towards the use of containment methods in psychiatric inpatient care: An integrative review

“…Furthermore, a study that investigated how a seclusion reduction programme could affect seclusion practices and attitudes found no difference in the use of alternative measures before and after the programme (Mann‐Poll et al . ).…”

“…The most surprising evidence for the lack of alternative measures is that nursing staffs’ use of containment alternatives did not decrease after a seclusion reduction programme (Mann‐Poll et al . ). Certain nurses recognized various alternatives to containment methods (Gelkopf et al .…”

The role of gender and race in the relation between adolescent distress tolerance and externalizing and internalizing psychopathology

“…However, a converging body of evidence suggests that exposure to stressors and subsequent coping responses play an important role. For instance, several theories on racial disparities in mental and physical health outcomes posit that African Americans are more likely to experience chronic perceived stress (e.g., racism, lower socio-economic position), and have fewer environmental resources available to cope with negative affect, which subsequently impacts psychiatric symptoms (Clark, Anderson, Clark, & Williams, 1999; Kim, 2013). Given differences in daily stressors and coping resources, it is plausible that low DT may manifest differently in African American and Caucasian adolescents.…”

Psychiatric staff attitudes toward coercive measures: An experimental design

“…As mentioned, many previous studies have shown that proper training could play a vital role in changing attitudes, in general, positively . This study's concern was about nurses’ attitudes toward coercive measures.…”