The programme will focus on creating safer inpatient mental health and learning disability services by using a systematic quality improvement approach to reduce restrictive practices. Restrictive practices cause both physical and psychological harm to patients and are often retraumatising to an already vulnerable patient group. The use of restrictive practice can impact negatively on staff who either use restrictive interventions on patients themselves or who witness them.
The MH-SIP is designed to support teams to deliver safer services for all, using a systematic approach to how they improve. A key component of our approach is that people delivering care and their patients consider the problem and co-design the changes.
A range of evidence-based change ideas are being developed and tested in practice by the National Collaborative Centre for Mental Health (NCCMH) and the local Patient Safety Collaborative (PSC) work will build on this, supporting teams and service users across the Eastern region to test the changes most relevant to them.
To improve safety by reducing harm caused to people using mental health, learning disabilities and autism inpatient services by 2023. Eastern Patient Safety Collaborative will contribute to the national aim of reducing the incidence of restrictive practice in inpatient mental health and learning disability services by 25% by April 2023.
Restrictive practice involves using measures such as restraint (to prevent, restrict or subdue movement of another person), seclusion (confinement in a room or physical space) and rapid tranquilisation (use of sedative medication by injection).
Large variation in practice across different units for people with similar needs was observed and reported in the Care Quality Commission (CQC) State of care review of mental health services report (2018). The mental health SIP will support services to identify areas of good practice and share learning on interventions to reduce the use of restrictive practice, address inequalities and develop interventions that create equality.
A range of evidence-based change ideas have been developed and tested in practice by the National Collaborative Centre for Mental Health (NCCMH) and through this work the PSC will build on this, working with teams and service users across the Eastern region to provide quality improvement (QI) coaching and skills training, co-design further change ideas, support testing in practice and develop measurement plans to show impact. It will also seek to share learning and best practice across all sites. Those that have been through the RRP program in the first year are invited to a join a champions network to support ongoing monitoring of Restrictive Practice in their setting and developing change ideas.
Delivery of the Mental Health SIP is underpinned by the principles of quality improvement, co-design and patient safety learning. A Safety Improvement Network has been established to support the programme, bringing together individuals and organisations concerned with safer care and improved outcomes in mental health in a dedicated space for improvement, shared learning, and growth. The Patient Safety Network with work with National Collaborating Centre for Mental Health (NCCMH). New members are welcome to join this network.
The Eastern PSC will be engaging and supporting dedicated teams or wards across the region to test and adopt a range of evidence-based interventions for reducing restrictive practice with mental health inpatients. If you want to learn more, contact Sarah Hamilton, Senior Improvement Lead at Eastern AHSN, at [email protected].
The National Programme was launched on 10 May 2021 and you can see slides and a recording of the webinar via the following links:
The Patient Safety Improvement Programmes are being delivered in our region by the Eastern Patient Safety Collaborative (PSC).
The National Patient Safety Improvement Programmes (NatPatSIPs) support a culture of safety, continuous learning and sustainable improvement across the healthcare system. They are run by the Patient Safety Collaboratives (PSCs), which are funded and nationally coordinated by NHS England and NHS Improvement and hosted locally by the Academic Health Science Networks (AHSNs).