A new report has revealed restrictive practices were used in 79% of in-patient mental health services in 2016.

The Mental Health Commission said there were 5,000 episodes of restrictive practices reported to it.

Restrictive practices include physical restraint and/or seclusion of patients.

This is a big increase on 2008, when the commission first started reporting on restrictive practices.

That year, there were 4,765 episodes of physical restraint and seclusion.

Seclusion

Its report found seclusion was used in 42% of centres in 2016 - compared to 39% in 2015.

There were also 1,475 episodes of seclusion in 2016, a decrease from 1,485 in 2015.

More men than women residents were secluded, at 64%, and the majority of those secluded were under 40-years-old.

There were also 213 instances where a person was locked in seclusion for over 24 hours, while on 43 occasions a person was locked in seclusion for over 72 hours.

However seclusion averages exclude the Central Mental Hospital.

The average duration here in 2016 was 124.7 hours.

Physical restraint

Physical restraint was used in 79% of centres in 2016 - compared to 75% of centres in 2015.

There were 3,525 episodes of physical restraint in 2016, up from 3,267 the year before.

Some 1,155 people were physically restrained in 2016, with more male residents than female residents being physically restrained.

While over 90% of incidences of physical restraint lasted less than 15 minutes.

One-in-four people restrained were aged between 18 and 29.