We believe that people who use our services and who are experiencing acute distress, leading to behaviours of concern, should be supported in ways which maximises their rights and autonomy. We believe that this approach increases the speed and depth of a person's recovery, while increasing the safety of all involved.

Our ‘No Force First’ approach has been established now for nearly a decade and has received widespread national recognition. It is one of the main goals within our wider organisational commitment to ‘Perfect Care’.

We employ a team of highly committed and passionate professionals to support teams as they implement a series of proven interventions that come together to reduce the use of restrictions in response to distress, particularly the highly controversial and dangerous use of physical interventions.

We are re-prioritising this commitment in a post pandemic world as people who use and deliver services adapt from the highly restrictive COVID related measures we had to implement on our inpatient units after the COVID pandemic in early 2020.

Ongoing healthcare scandals involving the abuse of people within inpatient environments and the subsequent overuse of restrictive interventions make the focus on these issues just as pertinent now as it was when we began our long term commitment to this process.

For more information about our work in this area please contact Chen Shoko, Nurse Consultant for Reducing Restrictive Practices : Chengeto.shoko@merseycare.nhs.uk.

If you require any more information on the No Force First initiative please contact Project Lead for No Force First, on 0151 473 2803.