Your ward is a safe and calming space to support your recovery. The team on your ward are trained and skilled in helping you with your mental health and physical wellbeing, always supporting your human rights and legal protections. If you want further information about this please speak to a member of the team.
This leaflet is about what can happen when people are distressed on wards, as well as the use of force. We hope by raising this topic we can avoid ever having to use force whilst you are in hospital.
The use of force is a rare event and there is lots we can do together to avoid it. Some useful information is included later in the leaflet.
The best tip we can give is to talk to any member of your clinical team about your thoughts, feelings and wishes.
Tell them:
– what helps you remain calm and well
– how you react to stressful things
– how you want staff to help you during those times
– as a last resort tell them how you would prefer to be cared for if the use of force is needed.
The team should ask the same questions to your carer, family or anyone you think they should talk to.
You can expect your doctor or keyworker to raise this issue with you if they think it’s needed. If you feel you want to discuss this you can do so with any member of the team.
The staff team will only use force as a very last resort. We want to be open and honest with you and hope that we can work together to never have to use it.
A calm and safe ward is something we should all expect. Aggression towards anyone is illegal and will treated as such. Should the clinical team think it’s needed they may involve the police. We can all contribute to a positive and safe ward.
