Anti-Ligature - Security, Safety, Participant Observation & Appropriate Devices for the Mental Health Sector
Observing and monitoring the security and welfare of care users within institutions or mental healthcare establishments is a difficult and exacting task. Now, using a new class of observation and security device, which is easy to operate and cost effective to install, we believe this is the solution that the market has been looking for. Designed specifically to provide both care users and service providers with an element of all round protection a glazed secure vision panel can assist in the prevention of self harm or attempted suicides.
CCTV may be effective as an overall monitoring system for corridors, communal areas or environments that may require an assessment of potential risk or threat but they offer a detached source of monitoring and can create a “Big Brother” atmosphere alienating care users.
Building trust from a visual relationship can be pivotal in placing at ease users on both sides of the facility. Recognizing a friendly face or acknowledging smiling eyes assists in creating a cohesive bond between those observing and those being observed. It is also an opportunity for the service provider to interact in a therapeutic way with the care user on a one‐to‐one basis. The importance of observation and assessment cannot be underestimated in the long term recovery of care users. A glazed secure vision panel can assist in this process.
The goal of secure care is to provide intensive treatment for compulsory care users in an environment where any risk to the care user or service provider is managed appropriately; observing by means of natural surveillance within such an environment is crucial. A glazed secure vision panel can assist in this process.
With an increasing focus on the safety and security of those in mental healthcare, the requirement for timely observation without compromising the dignity and privacy of those under supervision has become a real need. In addressing this need potential risks exist to both the care users and service providers; when the care users are unsupervised they are far more susceptible to harming others or causing self harm from the surrounding environment.
In controlling these potential risks and ensuring care users are safe at all time a degree of supervisory observation is required in order for the well being of care users to be maintained.
The rising concern in the mental health sector is that care users are at risk in general and self harm from protuberances such as door mounted furniture, load releasing devices, control mechanisms, and standard hardware that allow the custodial and care environment to operate.
When observation fails care users may die, come to serious harm or cause harm to others. Failure can be due to problems with the individuals or the system itself. The correct installation and operating method of a glazed secure vision panel by service providers can assist in the prevention of such occurrences.
To meet the challenge of providing both the ability to observe and supervise whilst eradicating the risk of harm from door security devices Vistamatic? has sought to provide an overall solution to this real need by designing a new range of Vistamatic? Anti‐Ligature Glazed Secure Vision Panels. This White Paper will introduce you to the concept of the Vistamatic? Glazed Secure Vision Panel, the simplicity of its design and the ease of its operation as well as the new features which have been designed to specifically adhere to the concept of anti‐ligature.
When specifying glazed secure vision panels ensure that the Vistamatic? brand is specified by name, all Vistamatic? products are branded around the operating mechanism of the product and all Vistamatic? products carry a Lifetime* Warranty.