What Are The Three Types of Restraints?

In a healthcare setting, restraints are used for many reasons, including protecting a patient from self-harm or from harming others, to keep people safe.

There are three types of restraints:

• Physical restraints, which limit a person’s movement
  • May include devices that limit a specific part of the body, such as arms or legs
  • Belts or vests may be used to keep a patient in a bed or chair
  • Trays may keep a person in a wheelchair
  • Bed rails or belts may keep a person confined to a bed
• Chemical restraints are medications not used to treat illness, but used to sedate people 
  • Includes sedatives or antipsychotics 
  • May be used to quickly sedate violent patients
  • Usually given as a pill or injection
• Environmental restraints are those that limit where a person can go
  • May include seclusion or isolation
  • Patients should be monitored at all times by healthcare providers
  • Door alarms may prevent people from passing beyond a specific point

Restraints should be used carefully when all other crisis management strategies have failed to work. Restraints should be used for the shortest time possible.

Problems with restraints include:

• Limiting a person’s ability to function independently 
  • Chemical restraints may leave a person too sedated to act
  • Physical restraints such as a tray on a wheelchair may keep a person from moving about freely
  • Increased frustration and restlessness
• Restriction of freedoms
  • May be inappropriate or excessive
  • Can lead to loss of self-confidence and self-esteem
  • Creates stress
• Risk of injury or harm
  • Restraints can cause injuries, e.g. attempts to climb a bed rail can result in a fall
  • Confusion and disorientation
• Loss of abilities
  • Prolonged sedation can lead to loss of physical or cognitive abilities