Impact of Seclusion on Patients and Healthcare Professionals

Running head: IMPACT OF SECLUSION
IMPACT OF SECLUSION
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

IMPACT OF SECLUSION
INTRODUCTION
Restraint and seclusion are conditions to which individuals are subjected as the last
option to treat severe behavioural or mental issues. Seclusion can be defined in terms of
mental health as the restraint in which an individual is locked down inside a room or
antipsychotic drug can be given to control behaviour (Canadian Patient Safety Institute,
2020). They are also prescribed to consume various psychotropic medications to improve the
patient condition such as depression, anxiety, schizophrenia and bipolar disorders (Brett et
al., 2017). These medicines are prescribed according to the signs and symptoms an
individual. The drugs function by creating alterations in the neurotransmitters (Rao &
Andrade, 2016). This essay will shed light on the impact of seclusion on patients and
healthcare professionals and the role of registered nurses in reducing seclusion and restraint.
DISCUSSION
IMPACT OF SECLUSION ON PATIENTS AND HEALTHCARE
PROFESSIONALS
Seclusion and Chemical Restraints of patients with severe mental diseases impacts a
huge negative effects on the patient health and mental status. A review study discussed the
impacts of seclusion on patients in which the authors reviewed about 35 articles on this very
topic. The authors showed that about 25% to 47% of individuals after being subjected to
seclusion developed post-traumatic stress symptoms and had a deleterious mental and
physical effect. The study provides quite a few information, which were not conclusively
discussed before and thus, would help design further policies to make the healthcare system
more careful about the patient situation and their actions (Chieze et al., 2019).

IMPACT OF SECLUSION
Another study was conducted that consisted of consumers of the mental health
services and their supporters in Australia. This study concluded by the statement that all the
participants of the study mentioned about violation of human rights, traumatic experience,
isolation and dehumanization (Colaizzi, 2016). They also reported that the behavior they used
was excessively forceful; the workers had no empathy towards them and had no way of
communicating anything to anyone. Thus, the study also showed the mentality and the
negative behavior the patients’ have developed during seclusion and restraint towards mental
health care in Australia (Askew, Fisher & Beazley, 2019). Various researchers also conclude
that seclusive and restraintful treatment is unnecessarily overused and also affected numerous
patients and also ended in fatal outcomes (Brophy et al., 2016).
Researchers also question the Australian Health Policies, criticizing the goals and
vision the system has towards seclusion as a way of treatment. The World Health
Organization stated that seclusion and restraint are not any appropriate therapeutic techniques
that can be used to treat with mental issues and might exert unfavorable effects on the
individual (World Health Organization, 2017). It has been observed that seclusion and
restraint increase the tendency of both the patients and the health workers towards physical
and psychological harms and in severe cases it has often claimed lives in both Australia and
internationally (World Health Organization, 2017). This statement by the World Health
Organization made the whole medical system seriously consider the situation and therefore
the Australian government also acted promptly on the situation and made some changes in
their guideline (Bullock et al., 2014).
Another literature also reported that the health care professionals often have the belief
that seclusion and restraint helps in curing the patient and beneficial for them as well. The
doctors and health workers over time have tried justifying the usefulness of seclusion and
restraint in treating the patients and for achieving positive outcomes. The health care workers

IMPACT OF SECLUSION
also had a view that if the seclusion and restraint is reduced the safety of both the patients and
themselves would be at stake. Adding to this the patients often behave violently and suicidal
which might lead them towards hurting anyone or committing suicide. These all justifications
by the health workers and doctors are mostly absent from the evidences in the cases treated in
this procedure, and show the exact opposite version of this. However, the patients reported of
an extreme harsh experience during the seclutive period. The most common feeling among
the consumers in this case included anger, loneliness, upset, more depressed, vulnerable,
abandoned, trapped and punished. The consumers also complaint of merciless behavior they
faced from the workers that included beating and forceful medication (Lloyd, King &
Machingura, 2014). Thus, the paper again conclusively showed that the feeling of the patients
towards the seclusion system is all the same and the other medical case evidences also report
likewise. Other studies also hint towards similar derogatory effect that seclusion exerts on
individuals with severe mental health issues (Read et al., 2014).
For example, it was seen in various interviews conducted in Australia on the patients
who had mental illness issues that they faced inhuman torture from health care professionals
while staying in seclusion ward of hospitals. The patients also reported of the trauma of being
alone all the time and having nobody to converse with. The frequent beating and torture in
cover of treatment was also evident from their statements (Lea et al., 2018). Furthermore,
there are also innumerable instances found in which the patients after being discharged from
seclusion wards developed post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), which further caused
decline in their state of well being (Phipps, Molloy & Visentin, 2019). Moreover, cases were
also found in Australia in which seclusion have caused death of patients (Ross, 2018).
Thus, the use of seclusion and restraint should only be prescribed to a patient when
there are no other options left. The guideline system of this treatment should also be based on
the principles that include ensuring safety and wellbeing of the admitted patient as well as the