SERVICE-USER AND STAFF SAFETY
Once again, this can prevent interior damage to doors, often caused by movement of equipment such as beds, wheelchairs, and trollies, and ensure that the building interior retains its newly installed appearance.
Promoting a calming feel From a design perspective, walls can benefit from bespoke coloured sheeting to promote a calming influence, by using colours that have been proven to help with this. Or, to create focal points, or a warm welcome, bespoke printed wall sheets, including any design or image, can make a thoughtful impact for staff, service-users, and visitors.
Support for self-harm prevention The risk of self-harm remains very real, and research from social enterprise company, Mental Health First Aid (MHFA) England has shown that people with mental ill health are more of a risk to themselves than to others: 80-90% of people who die by suicide are experiencing mental distress, and it is this type of statistic that necessitates measures in place to protect all that work in, or benefit from, acute mental health services.
While the care given to those that are at risk is always tailored to each individual, there are additional steps that can be taken to reduce the risk of self-harm. A few years ago, Intastop was the first to launch the Door Top Alarm , which was developed in conjunction with healthcare professionals after consultation at the Design in Mental Health conference in 2013. It revolutionised the use of doors in the mental health sector, and enabled a sense of dignity and privacy for patients that had previously been challenging to achieve. Furthermore, it enhanced the ability of staff to help provide a safe environment at all times.
This tamper-proof system, which can be retrofitted to existing doors with ease, works via a discrete sensory pad being installed at the top of a standard door, and, should a weight be applied, it will alert staff via a preferred method – such as an audible alarm, visible light, staff indicator panel, or via a pager or main computer. The device connects via the main power, and is also compatible with most staff attack systems.
Doortop alarms’ value Historic data has shown that doortop alarms play a vital role in protecting people, and allow specifiers and NHS Trusts to show their commitment to increasing patient safety and wellbeing. One Trust that reaped the benefits just after the product launch was Rotherham, Doncaster and South Humber NHS Foundation (RdaSH), which installed the doortop alarm in all its adult mental health inpatient facilities at its three sites across the region. Commended by the Trust for its ‘simplicity and effectiveness’, it is proving to be a vital tool in delivering effective mental healthcare, and ensuring that those most vulnerable are protected.
THE NETWORK | OCTOBER 2020
Intastop’s Electrical Transfer Hinge provides a ‘concealed and vandal-resistant method’ of transferring cable.
Reducing risks further
Recognising the other opportunities for self-harm in secure facilities, other products have been developed with the aim of reducing statistics pertaining to suicide. The latest show that during 2018 in the UK, 6,507 deaths were recorded as a result of self-harm, and while these occurred in a variety of situations, anti- ligature products across all scenarios are critically important in managing these statistics in the most positive way possible. Handrails had also been identified as presenting a very real opportunity for self- harm, and it was therefore essential that manufacturers developed solutions that promote patient safety and decrease the
risk both of self-harm and harm to others. As with other anti-ligature products, the development of the Intastop handrail addresses a range of ‘opportunities’, such as ligature, pick-, and tamper-resistant, and has a patent pending for its unique design. It supersedes the previous version – thanks to the enhanced credentials it offers, reducing potential pick-points and decreasing the risk of wedge ligature. It is important that these type of products meet the Equality Act 2010 and HBN 00- 04 guidelines.
Impact-resistance and infection control
With handrails being a contact touchpoint too, choosing enhanced products – by ensuring that they are impact-resistant and have an antibacterial coating to help with infection control and reduce healthcare- associated infections, and aid good hygiene, while simultaneously providing excellent pedestrian support and safety for movement around buildings – is also a key choice factor.
Protecting patients though building design
The Intastop DoorTop Alarm on an en-suite door.
In addition to anti-ligature products, it is important to appreciate that there are other ways that buildings can be designed, or have products retrofitted, to ensure that patients are protected, while ensuring that their care remains of the highest level, protecting their wellbeing and privacy. Removing the opportunity for self-harm is incredibly important, but equipping staff with additional opportunities for close monitoring of patients was also identified as being strategically important. Such close monitoring has to be recognised as a two- fold strategy – ensuring that patients/ service-users receive the care and privacy they need to benefit from their treatment, but also that wherever they are during that treatment, all elements of the building
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