Page 42 - Reduction of coercive measures

Chapter 2
defining coercive measures described by Matson and Boisjoli (2009). A measure can be both restrictive and non-restrictive depending on the context in which it is applied. Elements within the context which affects the interpretation of measures can be the aim and intention on which coercive measures are applied, organizational policies or culture, or the value which is assigned to self-determination by caregivers or residents. The way in which these contextual factors affect the interpretation of measures is not clear and possibly personal or determined by different interests. Results of Niemeijer et al. (2014) show that support staff members value safety more than the value of self-determination. Support staff may consider the registration of these coercive measures as less important and give it less attention than policy makers may assume, especially when registration has to lead to a reduction of coercive measures.
Limitations
Concerning the first step of the study two limitations have to be mentioned. First, the observer may not have been able to notice all coercive measures applied, especially when multiple support staff members were present during the observation and coercive measures may have been applied out of sight or hearing distance. Second, shifts registered by the second support staff members were not selected randomly but by the second staff members’ themselves, which may have led to a selection bias. Regarding the second part of the study, the selection of participants of the panel of stakeholders was partly done by a broad and then direct invitation of persons who were professionally or personally related to the organization, which may have led to a selection bias. In addition, no specific methods on qualitative data processing were used in processing the reflections of the panel. Therefore, results should be interpreted with caution and seen as an indication of outcomes of a mandatory and structural registration of coercive measures.
Implications
In both parts of the study consensus on whether a measure is restrictive or not was limited across a wide range of coercive measures. A
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