Uniting Communities in partnership with Flinders University has been awarded an ARIIA grant for their project ‘Implementation of Safewards to reduce the use of restrictive practices in residential aged care’.
This project seeks to address the problem of the overuse of restrictive practices in residential aged care settings by implementing a program of interventions to develop aged care staff capacity in the provision of day-to-day care of people with complex needs.
This project will adapt and implement the Safewards program, an evidence-based model and set of interventions developed to reduce restrictive practices in inpatient psychiatric settings. Co-design principles will be employed to implement and evaluate Safewards across two residential aged care settings. A stakeholder group of staff from participating sites and researchers will provide project oversight. Staff will be trained in the Safewards model and supported to adapt and implement Safewards interventions over a three-month period. Feedback from staff, residents and family members will be sought post-implementation to determine the feasibility, acceptability, staff confidence levels and suggested adaptations of Safewards for translation into residential aged care settings. During the pilot stage, restrictive practice use will be assessed to evaluate the effectiveness of Safewards. Project findings will provide an in-depth understanding of the successful implementation processes, the impact of Safewards in reducing restrictive practices, and recommendations for wider implementation of Safewards across residential aged care.