Ending restraint: An insider view

Abstract

This chapter is written from the vantage point of people who have used mental health services. It argues that there is a need to end all forms of restraint and offers a theoretical model encompassing direct and indirect restraint. Direct restraint refers to restrictions on bodily integrity, such as physical, mechanical and chemical restraint, as well as restraints on freedom of movement and freedom to make one’s own decisions. Indirect, hidden restraint refers to restrictions on people’s senses of self, arising from and interconnecting with, experiences of direct restraint. Examples of indirect restraint include the oppressive, ongoing and cumulative negative impacts on selfhood from restrai..