REVIEW


telling delegates: “It’s all about anti- ligature and risk reduction, security, and control. But we do so at the cost of what is often far more important – individual recovery. “While I don’t want to give the


impression that I do not appreciate that people are under pressure to justify the things they do and say and put in appropriate safety measures; I would always encourage people to feel courageous enough to take the risk and give a little bit more leeway. “Yes, we need protecting from


ourselves, and staff need a degree of control; but all too often suffocating


environments tell you that you are an accident waiting to happen. “Current approaches to keeping patients safe, I fear, risk doing more harm than good.”


Key to good design, she added, was to


give service users an element of control over their environment. “There may be a fear about making things homely, as people think we may not want to leave, but people in treatment should feel they have the ability to show their identity and have control.


FACILITATING RECOVERY “People like me need treatment settings filled with hope and which truly facilitate recover and help patients to realise they are more than a diagnosis.” The conference also heard from speakers focusing specifically on


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