The findings in this study support that physical restraint
can be a therapeutic and protective intervention for
psychiatric inpatients with violent behavior when health
professionals were able to provide psychological and
informational support to patients throughout the procedure.
These findings also highlight the important aspects of
actions by mental health professionals for quality improvement
of mental health care. The use of physical restraint
should be used as an adjunct to pharmacological treatment
and psychological support, in order to achieve long-term,
effective management of the patients’ illness. Cultural
beliefs and values of Chinese psychiatric patients about
health, illness and caregiving that may influence their
perceptions of physical restraint should also be taken into
account by health professionals, in order to ensure a
culturally sensitive care for these patients. Otherwise, the
application of physical restraint would induce negative
feelings in patients and would be more likely to result in the
patients’ struggling physically with the restraint devices. In
such circumstances, the use of restraint would cause
additional physical and psychological harm to them.