This report ranks 23 hospital-based mental health services on how often they use seclusion. The report, based on official data, has revealed that the use of seclusion has risen in Victoria in recent years, with some hospitals breaching state guidelines and failing to meet key benchmarks designed to keep the practice at a minimum
Key data reveals:
- Victoria is not doing well compared to the rest of Australia. Australia-wide, seclusion has been on a downward trend for 10 years. Victoria was following that trend until four years ago, when Victorian seclusion rates started climbing again.
- Some hospitals are secluding people at much higher rates than others. People in Barwon are 18 times more likely to be secluded than people in Traralgon. People in Box Hill are 12 times more likely to be secluded than people in Cranbourne. There is no justification for this.
- Long seclusion times. On average, Victorian hospitals seclude people for 8.3 hours, much higher than the national average of 5.1 hours.
- Author:
- Victorian Mental Illness Awareness Council (VMIAC)
- Date published:
- Fri 5th Apr, 2019