Restraint in Residential Aged Care

Course Overview

This Course explores current issues surrounding the use of restraint in residential aged care settings.

Topics

• Ethical and legal issues associated with the use of restraint
• Challenging behaviours in residential aged care
• Alternatives to the use of restraint

Need

The use of various forms of restraint is still common in residential aged care facilities and its use remains controversial. There are associated risks related to the inappropriate use of restraint.

There are more beneficent alternatives, with aged care staff not always being educated on what these are, and how they may be implemented, or on what ethical and legal implications are associated with the use of restraint.

Purpose

The purpose of this Course is to support decision-making by nurses working in residential aged care settings in relation to the provision of safe, quality care and the use of restraints.

Learning Outcomes

• Describe the ethical and legal issues surrounding decision-making associated with the use of restraint in residential aged care
• Examine the causes of challenging behaviours in residential aged care
• Explain strategies that can be implemented as alternatives to restraint

Target Audience

This Course is relevant to all healthcare professionals caring for older people, particularly those who work in residential aged care settings.

Disclosure

No conflict of interest exists for anyone in the position to control content for this activity. Wherever possible, generic or non-proprietary names of medications or products have been used.

Educator

Darren Wake

Peripatetic and always intellectually restless, Darren Wake has pursued varied careers in journalism, media production, academic philosophy and nursing. As a nurse, he worked in the speciality areas of critical care, community care, remote area healthcare and education. As a formally qualified academic philosopher Darren taught undergraduate units in law and ethics in healthcare, although his principle research focus revolved around logic and the philosophy of language. Darren’s media production output can be found scattered about the Ausmed website and in his long forgotten days as a word monkey, he wrote for European publications such as The Scotsman, The Great Outdoors, Country Walking and The Times. In 2014 Darren consulted to the Department of Health for the development of Consumer Directed Care policy and guidelines for remote area communities in the Northern Territory. These days he is the managing editor of a small independent publishing company based in the United Kingdom, and lives in Tasmania. In his spare time, Darren is currently studying a formal course in celestial navigation, just in case the inevitable zombie apocalypse messes with the world’s GPS satellite system.