AQuA Work on Mental Health Restraint Reduction Recognised by Care Quality Commission

We’re pleased to announce that we were recently recognised by health regulator the Care Quality Commission (CQC) for our work to reduce incidences of restraint across acute mental health settings in the North West. 

In their recent best practice paper, A Focus on Restrictive Intervention Reduction Programmes in Inpatient Mental Health Services, the CQC highlight the work of North West Boroughs NHS Foundation Trust as part of our Health Foundation-funded REsTRAIN YOURSELF programme, alongside Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust.

Speaking on the announcement, Paul Greenwood, Mental Health Improvement Advisor, said:

Paul Greenwood,
Mental Health Improvement Advisor

“It’s fantastic to see our work with members recognised by the CQC, and a real credit to the hard work to improve mental health services by staff at North West Boroughs and Mersey Care.

“To have two of our members identified for best practice is a great achievement both for them and the North West, and we continue to work closely with a number of our mental health Trusts to improve care for patients.”

Alongside other best practice examples from across the UK, the paper highlighted North West Borough’s work to improve governance procedures and share learning around restrictive practice across the wider organisation.

For Mersey Care, who we have also supported on mental health restraint reduction, the paper looked at how the Trust developed their No Force First programme to reduce restraint on wards, alongside improving staff sickness.

For more information about our work on Mental Health or restraint reduction, please visit our website.

Alternatively, you can contact Paul Greenwood on paul.greenwood@srft.nhs.uk or via Twitter on @PaulG_AQuA. 

Restraint Reduction - Video Blog 4 Now Live

We’re pleased to bring you the latest video blog (vlog) update from our mental health Restraint Reduction programme, with our Improvement Advisor Paul Greenwood.

Throughout these bi-monthly videos, Paul talks about our latest work with members participating in the programme, as well as what we have planned in the coming months.

Speaking ahead of his latest video, Paul said:
“In this fourth video I’ll be talking about our work to wrap up our 2016/17 Restraint Reduction programme, including some of the headline reductions in incidences of restraint and how we want to carry forward improvements into our other work.

“I’ll also be discussing our plans for our new 2017/18 programme looking at reducing restraint across learning disabilities and Children and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS) inpatient services, as well as some of our work with teams across the North West.”

Watch Vlog 4 here


If you missed Paul’s other vlogs, you can watch them back on our website. Feel free to share your comments with Paul via Twitter @PaulG_AQuA or Paul.Greenwood@srft.nhs.uk, or at @AQuA_NHS.

You can also subscribe to our YouTube channel for the next Restraint Reduction vlog or to watch more of our videos.

The REsTRAIN YOURSELF programme has been shortlisted for a prestigious national Patient Safety award

The University of Central Lancashire (UCLan) in partnership with the Advancing Quality Alliance (AQuA), have been shortlisted for a prestigious national Patient Safety award following their programme to reduce restraint in acute mental health, known as ReSTRAIN YOURSELF.

Paul Greenwood, AQuA Improvement Advisor

The Patient Safety Awards, which are now in their 9^th year, continue to recognise and reward outstanding practice within the NHS and independent healthcare organisations. UCLan and AQuA have been nominated in the Mental Health category. The REsTRAIN YOURSELF programme, which was funded by a grant from the Health Foundation, enabled UCLan as the lead partner and AQuA to work closely with mental health wards across the region to test and adapt an evidence based model called the 6 core strategies in the UK with a strong focus on trauma informed care. The evaluation work of this programme was undertaken by UCLan and together they have recently published a toolkit to support other organisations to reduce the use of restraint.

Paul Greenwood, Improvement Advisor at AQuA and lead for the REsTRAIN YOURSELF programmes said:

“I’m delighted that this work has been recognised by the Patient Safety awards. The partnership between AQuA and UCLan has started to build a really strong evidence base through the hard work of staff across the Trust’s in the region in reducing restraint in challenging environments. We hope that the toolkit we have recently developed will enable the learning to be spread across the UK and beyond.

“It’s an honour to be recognised alongside some other fantastic work in Mental Health and I’m looking forward to finding out the winner!”

Following their shortlist, the team will be travelling to London to present to the judges with the winners announced as part of the annual Patient Safety Congress which is being held in Manchester on the 4^th and 5^th July. 

We'd also like to congratulate the following members who also reached the awards shortlist:

• Blackpool Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust 
• Cheshire and Wirral Partnership NHS Foundation Trust 
• East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust 
• Lancashire Care NHS Foundation Trust 
• Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust 
• Liverpool Community Health NHS Trust 
• Liverpool Heart and Chest NHS Foundation Trust 
• Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust 
• NHS East Lancashire CCG 
• Salford Royal NHS Foundation Trust 
• St Helens and Knowsley Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust 
• Stockport NHS Foundation Trust 
• The Christie Hospital NHS Foundation Trust 
• University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay NHS Foundation Trust 
• Warrington and Halton NHS Foundation Trust 
• Wrightington, Wigan and Leigh NHS Foundation Trust

Useful Links:

Blog by Paul Greenwood on the work of the programme

RestraintReduction Toolkit