The event brought together commissioners, service providers, regulators, campaign bodies, service users, practitioners and researchers who are all committed to a common albeit ambitious vision: to deliver restraint-free care and support and make a real difference in the lives of people who rely on others for care and support.
The theme of the conference was ‘minimising inequalities in reducing restrictive practice’. Co-produced presentations between a Reducing Restrictive Practice (RRP) Lead and an Expert by Experience Lead based on the work done within the Cygnet seemed to be just what the doctor ordered. Two presentations were delivered; a keynote titled ‘Expert by Experience: the journey’ and a workshop titled ‘Co-production and RRP: the key to reducing restrictive practice’.
The keynote presentation focused on Raf’s journey from being a service user to working at a strategic level to influence positive change and reductions in restrictive practice not only within Cygnet but also in other organisations such as the CQC and third sector partners. This was mostly shown as a video.
The workshop shared work done within Cygnet to reduce restrictive practice. This included the RRP Project and Delivery Boards, Safewards implementation, blanket rules audits, Least Restrictive Practice Awareness Projects, RRP events and many more initiatives all of which were co-produced. Evidence of the outcomes of these initiatives were also shared using the evidence based Reducing Restrictive Practices Checklist that showed that our organisation was less restrictive than when this work began and is moving in the right direction.
The presentations were both very well received and got positive feedback from prominent individuals in the field of violence reduction. Joy Duxbury commented that organisations had a lot to learn from the RRP initiatives undertaken by Cygnet and encouraged others to take a look at the work we do. Joy Duxbury is a published Professor of Mental Health Nursing, Director for the Centre for Mental Health and the chair of the European Violence in Psychiatry Research Group (EViPRG). Some mentioned that they were moved to tears by the video of Raf’s journey and others said the workshop was the highlight of the conference.
“Reducing restrictive practice had been a subject that is close to my heart as the smallest reductions make massive improvements in the quality of service user care and experience and also promote safer services for all. Sharing the work we do and learning from others in the process will no doubt make our services better places within which to recover and work.”Rosalyn Mloyi, Reducing Restrictive Practice Lead
Rosalyn and Raf look forward to continuing and sharing more of the work done within the organisation and learning from others to further enhance practice in the reduction of restrictive interventions. They have already been approached by a number of organisations to share the work that has been done thus far. They would also like to thank each and every person who has been involved in making this work a success despite the challenges along the way.
The following is a short video by BILD with some highlights from the conference.