Factors associated with the use of mechanical restraint in disability services

ABSTRACT

Background: Mechanical restraint refers to the use of materials or devices to restrict the behaviours of a person with a disability, where the restraint is neither for therapeutic purposes or required by law. The inappropriate use of mechanical restraint is recognised in legislation and policy as a violation of people’s human rights, and a risk to their health and wellbeing. Understanding who is at risk of mechanical restraint may assist service providers to better support people with a disability.

Method: State-wide data collected between July 2012 to June 2013 were sourced. Odds ratios were used to describe the associations between individual characteristics and whether an individual was subjected to mechanical restraint.

Results: Individuals with certain characteristics, such as the presence of a hearing, physical, neurological, communication or visual impairment, and autism spectrum disorder had an increased likelihood of being mechanically restrained.

Conclusion: Initiatives to reduce mechanical restraint should pay particular attention to the support needs of those with sensory impairments and complex communication support needs including those with autism spectrum disorder and those with a physical impairment.

KEYWORDS:

• intellectual disability
• mechanical restraint
• restrictive interventions
• challenging behaviour
• hearing impairment
• physical impairment
• vision impairment
• autism spectrum disorder

Acknowledgements

The authors thank Robin Dale, Anthony La Sala and Thalia Sonko for the collation of the data sets analysed in this study and Tom Dedman for legal advice.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1 Only summary data were available from VMDS, not individual level data, so it was not possible to undertake more complex analyses to explore interactive effects.