About the Book
This manual is designed to help clinicians, administrators, and families attain the
goal of restraint-free care of frail elderly persons. Practical alternatives to restraint
models of support, developed by nursing home and hospital caregivers, are presented as
individualized care models. The manual is organized in outline form to highlight critical
material and to ensure quick access to solutions.
The objectives of restraint-free care include not only comfort and safety, but the best
possible quality of life. This philosophy of care requires that caregivers make sense of
clients' behaviors, rather than to simply control their responses.
About the Authors
Two University of Pennsylvania Nursing researchers, Drs. Neville E. Strumpf and Lois
K. Evans, developed a new model of individualized care for frail elders with their
pathbreaking work on the elimination of physical restraints in nursing homes and
hospitals.
Neville Strumpf and Lois Evans were the first researchers to carry out a systematic,
randomized trial to reduce restraints in nursing homes. Their findings have influenced the
care of older people not only at the bedside but at the policy level as well.
Their research has been supported by the National Institute on Aging, The Commonwealth
Fund, and the Alzheimer's Association. They were honored for their achievements by the
Gerontological Society of America (GSA) with its prestigious Doris Schwartz Gerontological
Nursing Research Award.
Reviews
"These nursing leaders have given us the gift of seeing how to care for frail and
confused elderly persons without restraints... Packed with anecdotes, protocols, and
references, it will be the standard reference for humane geriatric nursing."
- Steven Miles, MD, Associate Professor of Medicine,
University of Minnesota, Center for Bioethics
