The impact of the Volunteer Restraint Debrief offer from the perspective of staff

Case study 2: The impact of the Volunteer Restraint Debrief offer from the perspective of staff

Our Violence Reduction Specialist & Reducing Restrictive Practice Lead, Abu, shares his perspective on why the Debrief role is so valuable. He says:

“The importance of debrief and the role it plays in reducing conflict and containment cannot be overly emphasized. Amongst other things, a key part of any incident is the “service users voice and perspective”. There are evidence that tells us that whilst debriefs are recommended and professionals aim to conduct them, these are not always taken up by patients for variety of reasons. One of such reason can be because of the “them and Us” factor. I would imagine (if I was a patient) not wanting a member of staff who constantly imposes rules and boundaries on me, restrain me and also appears to be the one making me accept treatment (that I may not like), to then turn up later and want to talk to me about the incident. That in itself may trigger further anxiety and more anger for me and make me either refuse the debrief or in fact cause me to escalate again. These are some of the reasons why patients refuse debrief even though this action deny the service and staff the opportunity to learn from an incident, making it difficult (or impossible) and challenging to put preventative measures that are person centred in place.

The feedback and content I get from the volunteer debriefers most of the time are far more richer in context and meaning. This gives me a much more of a wider picture and understanding of incidents which helps broaden my approach and allows me to choose a more befitting intervention to support staff and service users. The information I get from the volunteer debriefers also allow me contribute effectively to the patients behavioural support plan and/or give useful and fairly balanced advise to staff during incident reviews. I have also started to use some of the information to recreate scenarios during our Reducing Restrictive Practice session with staff, which is always more useful as it is b-spoke to the Trust and service.”

One of our Ward Managers, Denford, describes how the introduction of the volunteer debrief intervention as changed the ward culture and practice:

“The Restraint debriefs have promoted the service user’s voice and led to positive changes in our practice and ward culture. We use the debrief reports in our team meetings and supervision. This has helped staff employ evidence based approaches to promoting positive behaviour and supporting patients whose behaviour challenges.”