Coercive measures in psychiatric care. Reports and reactions of patients and other people involved

Abstract

In ongoing studies of the quality of the mental health services in two Swedish counties, two thirds of the committed versus about one third of the voluntarily admitted patients reported coercive measures during the index period of care. Committed patients reported an equal degree of coercive treatment and restraint, whereas restraint dominated among the voluntarily admitted. The majority of the patients described the coercive measures as implemented by fait accompli; force was reported in 23% of the examples given by the committed patients but never by the voluntarily admitted. The committed patients justified 19% and the voluntarily admitted 38% of the coercive measures reported; the committed patients justified coercive treatment and restraint to about the same extent; the voluntarily admitted patients justified 65% of the examples of restraint but only 20% of the examples of coercive treatment. There was a 70% concordance between the reports of the committed patients and psychiatric personnel as to the occurrence of coercion, but the head nurses tended to state that treatment had been implemented by persuasion in cases where the patients stated that implementation was by coercion.