Preferred Health's educational program aimed at reducing restraints

Goals are to change attitudes, dispel myths and create alternative strategies

Monday December 8, 2008 -- Deron Hamel
An educational program being launched by Preferred Health Care Services in the new year is aiming to reduce the use of wheelchair seat belts in Leisureworld homes.

Lynn Slaney, director of education at Preferred Health Care Services, says the program has three goals: to change attitudes, to dispel the myth that restraints save time and to prepare a toolkit of alternative strategies.

In order to accomplish these tasks, Slaney says Preferred plans to galvanize an interdisciplinary committee, which will include staff members from dietary and activation departments, physiotherapy, occupational therapy, nursing staff and medical.

By engaging team members from all facets of the organization, Slaney says the team will be positioned to develop the best possible strategies for reducing restraints in homes.

By changing attitudes about the effectiveness of restraints in long-term care settings, Slaney says caregivers will better positioned to embrace quality of life for residents at Leisureworld’s 26 long-term care homes.

“It’s about resident-focused care,” she adds.

Slaney also emphasizes the need to dispel the myth that using restraints saves time for caregivers.

The myth, she says, centres on the idea that caregivers can get more work accomplished if residents who are at high risk of falling have their wheelchairs suited with seat belts.

The false idea is that caregivers can get more work done because they can spend less time watching residents.

“In fact, that individual will have a higher level of agitation, increased skin breakdown and all of those other problems that require more intense monitoring and a high level of documentation that, in fact, takes more time,” says Slaney.

The program will also examine alternative strategies that caregivers can utilize in lieu of restraints.

Some considerations which will be examined include looking at the reasons why residents who have a cognitive impairment try to get out of their wheelchairs. Once it’s established why residents who at risk of falling are trying to get out of their wheelchairs, proactive measures can be put into place to provide a safer environment for residents.

“Let’s look at why they are getting up and falling,” says Slaney. “Do they need to get to the bathroom, are they hungry, are they thirsty, do they feel lonely? We need to meet the needs, rather than prevent the fall.”

What is your home doing to educate families and staff members about restraints? If you have a story you would like to share, please contact the newsroom at 800-294-0051 ext. 23, or e-mail deron(at)axiomnews.ca.

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