Implementation of Safewards to manage the use of restrictive practices in residential aged care

Aged care staff from a range of disciplinary backgrounds will be trained in the Safewards interventions. Safewards interventions include: clear mutual expectations, soft words, positive words, talk down, bad news mitigation, knowing each other, calm down methods, reassurance, discharge messages, mutual help meetings. The clinical educator from the aged care organisation and two trainers from the project team (one staff with lived experience and one mental health clinician) will provide on-site training of aged care staff. Training will be conducted face to face or via Teams and will consist of 12 minute sessions. Staff will be invited to attend training sessions for each intervention. Implementation of each intervention will occur concurrently with training over 12 weeks. We are aiming to train 50% of staff from each site in each intervention. Attendance will be monitored via a records sheet. An on-line community of practice group between sites will be established to share learnings and support implementation across sites. Posters about Safewards will inform residents and families of the project. Letters will be sent to families informing them of Safewards. Families and residents will be invited to participate in relevant interventions e.g., know each other, meaningful messages.