An updated national survey on seclusion and restraint

Abstract

A survey of the use of seclusion and restraint during 1994 was conducted at 124 state psychiatric hospitals to update data from a survey of 108 such hospitals conducted for 1991. Rates of patients' placement in seclusion and restraint, hours spent in placement, and discrete incidents of seclusion and restraint were examined. The 1994 results were highly similar to those for 1991. Smaller hospitals providing acute care had higher rates of seclusion and restraint than their larger counterparts providing chronic care. Small positive correlations were found between seclusion and restraint and between the proportion of beds occupied by patients committed as criminally insane and the use of restrictive procedures.