NCJ Number
191358
Journal
Journal of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law Volume: 29 Issue: 3 Dated: 2001 Pages: 303-309
Date Published
2001
Length
7 pages
Annotation
This Canadian study examined seclusion as a psychiatric intervention in a multilevel, secure psychiatric hospital that serves federally sentenced individuals in the Prairie Region.
Abstract
At the site studied (Regional Psychiatric Centre), seclusion refers to the voluntary or involuntary temporary confinement for clinical reasons of a patient alone in a locked room that is equipped with a closed-circuit camera and from which the patient is not released until deemed by a psychiatrist to be clinically ready. Seclusion at the Regional Psychiatric Centre is viewed as a stage on a continuum of intensive psychiatric care provided in response to those patients whose mental health problems impair their judgment, behavior, capacity to recognize reality, or ability to meet the ordinary demands of life. Seclusion is the most extreme level on this continuum. Between August 1996 and February 1999, 183 patients (27.7 percent of total admissions) were secluded on 306 occasions. The mean duration of seclusion was 90.3 hours (minimum 1 hour; maximum 908 hours). A higher proportion of female patients (60 percent) was secluded than of male patients (25 percent). Sixty-five percent of the patients were secluded once, 29.5 percent two to four times, and 5.5 percent more than four times. Suicidal threats and self-harm gestures were the reasons for initiating seclusion in 27.4 percent of cases. Patients with diagnosed substance-related disorders accounted for 40.8 percent of all seclusion episodes; whereas, those with schizophrenia and related psychoses accounted for 28.1 percent. These findings suggest that seclusion remains a relatively common intervention for some disturbed patients in a forensic setting. 4 tables, 1 figure, and 20 references