Surveillance proposal

Surveillance proposal

We will update the guideline on violence and aggression: short-term management in mental health, health and community settings.

Reasons for the proposal

Topic expert feedback, stakeholder input and several studies highlighted areas where there had been amendments to national policies and new and forthcoming legislation, and new evidence had been published. The main areas included:

  • a change in perspective from reactive to proactive

  • trauma-informed care and support

  • pharmacological methods for rapid tranquilisation

  • post-incident debrief and formal review

  • equality considerations such as: further considerations of the treatment of those with protected characteristics; the treatment and management of care for children and young people; and the treatment and management of care for people with learning disabilities

  • restraint positions

  • the Use of Force Act 2018

  • deprivation of liberty safeguards.

Initially, the new published evidence was not considered directly relevant to the guideline population of service users in mental health settings, or was deemed insufficient in volume or quality to impact on the recommendations. However, a number of consultation comments were submitted which highlighted further evidence and intelligence to show gaps in NICE guidelines and therefore a full update was necessary with a new scope.

For further details and a summary of all evidence identified in surveillance, see appendix A.


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