Hospital experience of a sensory comfort room for psychomotor agitation and distress in functional rehabilitation

Abstract

A sensory comfort room is a further therapeutic tool that can be implemented in a mental health unit, as a complement to the specialist nursing care already provided. Scientific evidence, good practice and humanization encourage the search for alternatives to mechanical restraint (MR) and seclusion in the management of psychomotor agitation, measures with many adverse effects. Until now, related studies have focused on acute care areas. This study, with a control and an intervention group, evaluates the efficacy of the implementation and use of this sensory comfort room in a functional rehabilitation area (FRA) within the Álava Mental Health Network. It is a non-randomized clinical trial with a control group. According to the study results, the introduction of sensory comfort rooms in mental health inpatient settings could help along this path. The results show a reduction of 37.5% in the use of MR and 44.4% in seclusion one year after implementation, highlighting the value of using the sensory comfort room in daily practice and thus helping the patient with severe mental disorder to regain self-control during moments of psychomotor agitation.