Coercion and Violence in Mental Health Settings

Nutmeg Hallett, PhD, is an Associate Professor in the School of Nursing and Midwifery at the University of Birmingham, United Kingdom. She is a researcher with a background as a mental health nurse. She is deputy lead for the Risk, Abuse and Violence Research Programme and is a core member of the Institute of Mental Health. She has published widely on the experiences and prevention of coercion and violence in healthcare settings from the perspectives of patients, staff and students. Her research interests include how restorative justice principles can be embedded within mental health services.Richard Whittington PhD is a research advisor at St. Olavs Hospital Trondheim and professor at the Department of Mental Health at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU). He is a psychologist and health service researcher with experience as a mental health nurse. His main focus is on the social psychology of preventing coercion and violence in mental health services from an interactional perspective.Dirk Richter, PhD, is a senior researcher in the Department of Health Professions at Bern University of Applied Sciences and Head of Research and Development at the Centre for Psychiatric Rehabilitation at Bern University Hospital for Mental Health, with a background in psychiatric nursing and sociology. He has published on following topics: violence and aggression management in mental health care, coercion in general health care, psychiatric rehabilitation, psychiatric epidemiology, epistemology of mental disorders and mental health related Covid-19-research.Emachi Eneje, is a PhD student in the School of Nursing and Midwifery at the University of Birmingham. His research focus is recovery from mental illness; more specifically, exploring ways in which the experience of recovery can be modelled with computable representation. His research is inspired by his own lived experience of mental illness and ongoing journey of recovery.

• SECTION I. UNDERSTANDING.-1 Introduction.- 2 The culture of coercion.- 3 Biopsychosocial theories of aggression.- 4 The lived experience of coercion.- 5 User, carer and professionals’ experiences of coercion.- 6 Responses to violence.- SECTION II. SURROUNDINGS.- 7 Physical.- 8 Safety and security in psychiatric clinical environments.- 9 Ward culture and atmosphere.- SECTION III. ASSESSING.- 10 Measurement and prevalence.- 11 Prediction of violence.- SECTION IV. PREVENTING AND MANAGING.- 12 Reducing involuntary admissions.- 13Organisational responses to aggression.- 14 Trauma-informed care.- 15 Aggression management training.- 16 De-escalation.- 17 Pharmacological management.- 18 Coercive measures.- 19 Alternatives to coercion.- 20 Post incident support.- 21 Conclusions.