Attitudes of psychiatric staff toward coercion: nationwide AttCo study.

Background: Attitudes of mental health professionals toward coercion are a potential tool in reducing the use of coercive measures in psychiatry.

Aims: This study, part of the nationwide Attitudes toward Coercion (AttCo) project, aimed to assess staff attitudes on a nationwide and multiprofessional scale across adult, child and adolescent, and forensic psychiatric departments.

Method: During 9 weeks in 2023, 1702 psychiatric staff members across Germany filled out a survey including gender, age, profession, work experience and setting, and the validated Staff Attitude to Coercion Scale (SACS).

Barriers and Facilitators-Lessons Learned From a Randomised Trial to Implement Clinical Practice Guidelines for the Prevention of Coercion in Psychiatry.

The PreVCo study ('Prevention of Violence and Coercion') investigated the effects of a structured programme for the implementation of guideline recommendations for the management of aggression and the prevention of violence and coercion in psychiatric hospitals in a multicentre randomised controlled trial with 55 participating wards. The intervention was a 1-year individually tailored implementation programme supported by external consultants. An independent evaluation of the individual wards' process aimed at identifying barriers and facilitators in implementation.

[Everything can - nothing must? Peer support on acute psychiatric wards].

Peer support is recommended for improving acute psychiatric care, but research is lacking. This qualitative study examines the impact, particularly on coercive measures, through semi-structured interviews with four peers, four patients, and twelve (non-peer) staff members from two acute psychiatric wards. Analysis shows that peers experience unique opportunities and challenges in this context.

[Implementation of the guidelines on the prevention of violence and coercion: pre-post analysis of the randomized controlled PreVCo study].

Aim Of The Study: This study examines the extent to which a structured implementation of guidelines for the prevention of coercion leads to an improvement in guideline-compliant work and the reduction of coercion in routine clinical practice.

Methods: This is a secondary analysis of the shift of outcomes in the PreVCo study, which was conducted on 55 psychiatric wards throughout Germany.

Results: The number of coercive measures decreased significantly during the observation period.

Implementation of guidelines on prevention of coercion and violence (PreVCo) in psychiatry: a multicentre randomised controlled trial.

Background: Interventions to prevent the use of coercion in psychiatric hospitals have been summarized in the 2018 German Association for Psychiatry, Psychotherapy, and Psychosomatic's comprehensive guidelines. Twelve recommendations for implementation of these guideline on psychiatric wards have been deducted and their feasibility has been tested in a pilot study, using external implementation consultants as facilitators. The objective of the PreVCo study was to test their effect in a randomised clinical trial.

Coercive measures in psychiatry - When do they occur and who is at risk?

Coercive measures (CM) in psychiatry adversely affect patients and efforts to minimize CM are steadily increasing. One area that has not been a strong focus of preventative efforts to date is the time of use of CM during hospitalization although previous research indicates that the admission situation and early hospitalization are times of increased risk for CM. This study therefore aims to contribute to the body of research in this field by analyzing in detail the times of use of CM and identifying patient characteristics serving as predictors for CM during early hospitalization.

Patient communication ability as predictor of involuntary admission and coercive measures in psychiatric inpatient treatment.

Coercive measures (CM) and involuntary admission to psychiatric treatment can have detrimental consequences for patients. Past research shows that certain clinical, treatment and admission-related characteristics put patients at a higher risk of experiencing CM and involuntary admission. Although of high societal importance, the association between patients' communication ability and CM and involuntary admission has not been subject of past research.