Restrictive practices in Irish mental health centres fall to lowest level on record, report shows

Friday, 12^th December: The combined use of restrictive practices in Irish mental health centres has fallen to its lowest level since national reporting began in 2008, according to a new report published by the Mental Health Commission (MHC).

Entitled The Use of Restrictive Practices in Approved Centres – Activities Report 2024, the report documents the use of seclusion, physical restraint and mechanical restraint across 66 approved inpatient mental health centres nationwide during 2024. This is the MHC’s sixteenth report on the use of seclusion, mechanical means of bodily restraint and physical restraint in approved centres and forms part of its statutory remit to report independently on the quality and safety of mental health services in Ireland.