Residential care staff working knowledge of reporting restrictive practices within Intellectual Disability and Older Persons care settings: A scoping review

Introduction: This Restrictive practice is an intentional restriction of an individual’s voluntary movement or behaviour. Given the impingement of human rights associated with restrictive practice, many jurisdictions all over the world have advocated for a reduction in their use, highlighting the importance of reporting restrictive practice. However, a paucity of literature exists examining the knowledge of residential care staff regarding reporting restrictive practice.

Aim: To examine the knowledge of residential care staff regarding the reporting of restrictive practices in intellectual disability and older persons care settings.

Methods: A scoping review referenced to JBI and PRISMA guidelines was used. The studies were retrieved from a library multi-search function of various databases. Sixteen studies were included in the final analysis.

Findings: Findings demonstrate that residential staff lack knowledge of what defines a restrictive practice and find the reporting system as unnecessary, time consuming and burdensome. The identified barriers to reporting restrictive practice included: fear, lack of clear guidelines and awareness of the reporting system, lack of time, and staff shortages. While the facilitators included awareness campaigns, availability of appropriate reporting structures, and managerial support.

Conclusion: This review suggests that improvements in terms of residential staff understanding of and reporting of restrictive practice is required. Moreover, this review has the potential to assist policymakers to understand the individual, organisational and regulatory barriers and facilitators to reporting restrictive practice within intellectual disability and older persons care settings.